Q Why do Japanese students let their parents pay for all of their college expenses?

A Japanese universities are unlike American universities where the doors are opened wide for people who truly want to study. In order to enter a university in Japan, one has to survive a series of stiff examinations taken in elementary school, junior high school, high school and university. Students often fail the university entrance examination and have to study to take them again. There are those who give it a second or third try, but this does not guarantee them admittance to the university of their choice. Students have to try to enter a university in the least possible time after graduating from high school, otherwise passing the test will become more and more difficult. Unlike American students who save to pay for their tuition, Japanese students have no time to be thinking about the other aspects except to pass.

Japan is a society that places great importance on educational background. Japanese parents have high expectations on the success of their children and would much rather see their children study than work in their free time. They regard paying for their children's expenses and having them enter a better university in as short a time as possible to be more practical than to have their children work to earn whatever they can at their part-time job. They consider their children's education to be an investment.