80th campaign marks 40th anniversary of Ashinaga student fundraising drive
¡Á10,000 supporters around the nation voice ringing appeal for support¡Á

The 80th Ashinaga Student Fundraising Campaign, coinciding with the drive¡Çs 40th anniversary, took place April 24-25 and May 1-2, 2010. The campaign was chaired by Hiroaki Nagaoka, a senior at Nihon University, and involved approximately 10,000 junior high, high school, and university students at 200 sites around the country.

At the April 23 opening ceremony held in Yurakucho, Tokyo, Fumino Sumitomo, a senior at Yaizu Chuo High School in Shizuoka Prefecture, stressed the necessity of scholarship funds, saying, ¡ÈMy Ashinaga scholarship gave me hope for the future at a time when I had lost all hope. For orphans like us, these scholarships are crucial to us being able to dream of a brighter future.¡É

Tuition is not the only expense associated with going to high school (see figure). According to fiscal 2008 statistics released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, attending a public high school cost approximately 400,000 yen over and above tuition fees. Additionally, at private high schools, non-tuition expenses amounted to roughly 700,000 yen, after allowing for the maximum available subsidy of 236,000 yen.

According to the ¡ÈHousehold Status Reports¡É collected from Ashinaga high school scholarship recipients at the end of fiscal 2009, fully 58.1% of these students reported receiving tuition waivers under the old government tuition assistance program, before institution of the new program that targets elimination of high school tuition fees. This illustrates how only a minimal of students will actually be helped under the new program.

At the same time, as a result of heavy news coverage of the government¡Çs new policy to eliminate high school tuition, since last autumn Ashinaga has received inquiries from people asking whether high school students still need support. Given the urgency of these circumstances, the student campaign secretariat distributed a million flyers with the message, ¡ÈOrphans will not be able to go on to high school even if tuition is free!¡É Thanks to these efforts, the fundraising campaign was able to avoid the worst-case scenario of a huge drop in donations. Campaign chair Nagaoka said, ¡ÈWe really felt the warmth and generosity of huge numbers of people.¡É Over the 40 years of its existence, the fundraising drive has collected 9,174,300,000 yen (approximately US$100 million), which in turn has allowed 80,000 students to go on to high school and higher education