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On December 28, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended a Ministerial Meeting Aimed at Designing a System for Tuition-Free Childhood and Higher Education.
 
During the meeting, discussion was held on the direction of designing a system for tuition-free childhood and higher education.
 
Based on the discussion the Prime Minister said,
 
“We will squarely take on the challenge of our declining birthrate and aging of society  and transition our social security to one oriented to all generations, in which everyone, young and old, can enjoy peace of mind. The introduction of tuition-free childhood education from next October and the same for higher education from April 2020 are important first steps to that end.
 
Childhood education lays the foundation of life-long personality formation; we will make it tuition free. We will ensure that high-quality higher education is accessible even to children from low-income families. We intend to give back to the people the incremental tax revenue from the raising of the consumption tax scheduled for next October through implementing these measures.
 
I would like the relevant ministers to swiftly prepare a set of relevant bills and make thorough efforts to ensure smooth implementation by local governments and other relevant entities, following the direction that we have decided today.”