HOKKAIDO - Hokkaido saw a marked shift toward private high schools among students entering in fiscal 2026 after tuition at private institutions became effectively free from April, according to an analysis by the Hokkaido Board of Education.
An analysis by the Hokkaido Board of Education found that the number of first-year students at public high schools fell by 951 from fiscal 2025, while enrollment at private high schools increased by 936.
Private schools accounted for 30.2% of all first-year high school students in the prefecture, up 2.7 percentage points from fiscal 2025 and the largest annual increase recorded over the past decade.
Japan's national high school tuition support program provides subsidies that are applied directly to tuition fees. From April 2026, the government abolished the household income limit and raised the maximum annual payment to 457,200 yen for students attending full-time or part-time private high schools.
The support ceiling for public high schools is 118,800 yen a year, equivalent to the standard annual tuition charged by public institutions. Students enrolled in private correspondence high schools can receive up to 337,200 yen annually.
The expansion built on reforms introduced in April 2020, when the government increased assistance for private high school students from households earning below a specified income level. Under that system, the largest subsidies were generally limited to families with annual incomes of around 5.9 million yen or less, while basic support was available to households earning less than approximately 9.1 million yen.
The fiscal 2026 reform removed those income restrictions as part of a policy aimed at allowing students to choose schools based on their preferences and educational needs rather than their families' financial circumstances.
The program covers tuition but does not necessarily eliminate other expenses associated with private education, including admission fees, facility charges, uniforms, textbooks, transportation and school activities. Low-income households may receive separate grants to help meet some costs other than tuition.
Although the enrollment trend varied by region, the Hokkaido analysis indicated that students were increasingly selecting private institutions. It also found that more students from other school districts were entering private high schools in the Ishikari district, which includes the Sapporo area.
The education board plans to survey students and parents to examine the reasons behind their school choices and release a more detailed analysis around fall 2026.
Source: HBCニュース 北海道放送
