The education ministry plans to significantly expand financial support for prefectural governments to help make public high schools more attractive to students.The initiative comes after private high school tuition has effectively been made free from the current fiscal year from April, fueling concerns over a fall in applications to public high schools, which are established and operated by prefectural governments.In response, the central government set up a fund of about ¥300 billion under the supplementary budget for fiscal 2025, which ended in March. It also plans to launch a new subsidy program from fiscal 2027 onward.