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May 17, 2025

Free school lunch for big families from this year

A letter was sent home through the school with my youngest daughter a couple of weeks ago. Between one thing or another I only read it yesterday. And much to my delight it revealed some happy news indeed! From this year, school lunch will be free for my younger two children.


School lunch is provided, at a cost, in the public schools in my town. It is possible that each town or district does it differently, but I can tell you about my town. That is, the system for elementary school and Junior High school, but not Senior High School. We don't have any high schools in our town - neither private nor public - so I can't speak to the system for public senior high schools.


In my town, they charge 4000 yen per month per child for school lunch whether in elementary school or Junior High School. However, if there is two children in the same school it is 3500 yen per child. That is two or more in either elementary school and / or two or more in Junior High School. Right now I have one in senior high school, two in Junior High School and one in Elementary School. So I would have been charged 4000 yen for the elementary school child and 7000 yen for the two in Junior High.


School lunch fees are paid by direct debit from the bank. I have heard that they have always provided free school lunch to children from families with unemployed parents or guardians. But from April this year, they will be providing free lunch to big families, regardless of their income status. Big families are described as families with more three or more children. Which is actually really common in my town.


Not every child will get the free lunch, just the third child and any subsequent children. It applies to every third and subsequent child regardless of what stage of life the older siblings are at. The reason I mention this is because sometimes there is a stipulation such as that the older siblings have to also be at compulsory education level (elementary school or Junior High School). So this year I will only be paying 4000 yen for school lunches rather than 11,000 yen. (My eldest doesn't have school lunch in Senior High School).


I don't know if this is at municipal level only or whether it is national. Does anyone know if this will be applied nationally?


I took the featured photo of this post in a school lunch museum of sorts in Saitama a few years ago.

Free school lunch for big families from this year photo





BigfamJapan

BigfamJapan

Former nickname was "Saitama". Changed it to save confusion on place review posts! Irish, 20+ years in Japan! I also write on my personal website: insaitama.com


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