Financial Aid Available from Shiga Prefecture:Outline of the Financial Aid System Offered by Shiga Prefecture

Shiga Prefecture offers, under its ordinance, financial aid to students of any of the following categories of school, including senior high schools, who have difficulties in obtaining education thereat for economic reasons.

Eligibility for applicants

1. An applicant shall be a student attending any of the following schools;
2. His/her guardian, in the capacity of legal guardian or guardian of a minor, shall reside in Shiga Prefecture;
3. He/she is a member of a household which falls into any of the following:
   1. The household receives public assistance under the Public Assistance Act;
   2. Any and every member of the household is exempt from municipal taxation under Article 295, paragraph 1 of the Local Tax Act or is exempt from the municipal inhabitant’s tax in accordance with the relevant municipal ordinances under Article 323 of the Local Tax Act;
   3. The household has an annual income equal to or less than 1.7 times the annual standard household financial requirement under the Public Assistance Act and which is deemed to be insufficient to support his/her school expenses; 
4. He/she is not a recipient of any financial aid or similar support available under any other municipal ordinance or regulation, which includes the Living and Welfare Fund Loan (Education Support Funds), Loan for Single Mothers and Fathers and the Widow Welfare Fund (school expenses), financial aid for part-time and corresponding courses of education, financial aid offered by the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), etc.

Target categories of schools/courses

Senior high school; later course of a secondary school; specialized school; specialized vocational high school; and advanced course of special training school

*Financial aid projects for a student attending a college, university, junior college or special training school (apart from those in advanced courses) are carried out by JASSO. Any inquiries thereabout should be made to JASSO through the school in which the student is enrolled. *In the case wherein the guardian of a student who proposes to apply for a financial aid resides outside Shiga Prefecture, the student will become subject to the financial aid system operated by the prefecture wherein his/her guardian resides, and he/she is requested to make inquiries thereabout to such prefecture.

* Any application for a fund for entry to school alone shall not be acceptable.

50,000 yen (without distinguishing between national or public school and private school)

An amount equal to the enrollment fee concerned (with a limit of not more than 150,000 yen)

Amount equivalent to the cost of purchasing a computing device (Up to 150,000 yen)

The duretion of the financial aid shall extend from the month following the time the student files an application for the financial aid (provided, however, that if he/she makes the application in April, such duration shall extend from the month of April) until the elapse of the standard period required for graduation from the school in which the student is enrolled or until the elapse of the period of his/her actual attendance at the school if he/she is deemed to have a compelling reason such as suffering from a disease, incurring an injury or becoming victim to a disaster, or the like; any application for a fund for entry to the school shall be acceptable only if it is made in April.

The financial aid bears no interest.

Three times a year: (i) Upon undergoing a screening; (ii) Around the end of September; and (iii) Around the end of January; A fund for entry to a school shall be taken out together with the first installment of a financial aid.

One (1) cosigner is required who, in principle, shall be the guardian of the applicant and shall be responsible for repaying the financial aid made under this financial aid system jointly with the loanee of the financial aid.

As needed (provided, however, that any application for fund for entry to a school shall only be made in April; given that financial aid are subject to a budget, a flurry of applications therefor in excess of the budget may make further applications unacceptable or bring them to a halt.)

The applicant is required to fill in the application form for financial aid and to send it, together with necessary documents, to Shiga Prefectural Board of Education through the senior high school, etc., in which he/she is enrolled.

* Any loanee who meets the following requirements may be given a grace period for repayment of the financial aid if he/she so requests:

Financial aid recipients must submit to the Board of Education a bond for financial aid jointly signed with their cosigner indicating the entire amount of the the financial aid, when the recipients graduate from a senior high school or the financial aid is discontinued. Recipients who fail to do this are required to repay the entire amount of the aid received thusly in full in a lump sum.

Financial aid must be repaid within a period not exceeding ten years starting from six months after the day of the recipient’s graduation from senior high school or the termination of the financial aid, and in equal installments on a monthly, biannual or annual installments, according to the repayment schedule indicated in the signed bond for Financial Aid submitted by the recipient. The due dates are the last day of each month, the last days of July and November, and the last day of November of each year during the repayment period, respectively, for repayment on a monthly, biannual, and annual installments. The repayment may be made either through electronic transfer from the recipient’s account or personal deposit at a banking institution. Bank transfers should be made on the 25th of the months when repayment is due.

If a financial aid recipient fails to repay the student loan by the due date, he or she must pay a default interest, the amount of which shall be calculated by multiplying the amount due by a 10.75% per annum interest rate according to the number of days elapsed from the day following the due date until the actual date of repayment, and immediately repay the outstanding balance of the loan in a lump sum.

* The figure for the amount of fund for entry to a private school was estimated based on the base amount of 50,000 yen plus an additional aid for entry to a private school of 150,000 yen; in actuality, the additional aid for entry to a private school shall be equal to the amount of the enrollment fee involved in entry to the private school (with a limit of not more than 150,000 yen).

* Funding for the purchase of computing devices is estimated at 150,000 yen maximum.

* The number of months for which financial aid is granted was assumed to be 36 months, which an ordinary student would need from the entry to a school until graduation therefrom.

Any inquiry should be made to the school in which the relevant student is enrolled.