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Students from 10 public schools in Japan will be coming to Singapore on a field trip in 2024, but the price tag per student has drawn mixed reactions, with many Japanese citizens questioning the wisdom behind this expenditure.
The five-day trip will be undertaken by students from 10 junior high schools in Tokyo’s Minato ward, and is estimated to cost 570,000 yen (S$5,280) per person, Minato mayor Masaaki Takei announced last Friday.
The affluent Minato would become the first municipality in Japan’s capital city to conduct overseas school trips for public junior high schools, Japanese media reported.
Singapore has been selected as the destination for around 760 third-year junior high school students, who at age 15 will be completing their final year of compulsory education in Japan.
At a press conference, Minato’s mayor said Singapore was chosen because it is an English-speaking and safe country that is close to Japan with a minimal time difference.
He said that since 2006, schools in Minato have been focused on improving their students’ English through additional lesson hours and programmes, and that the trips in 2024 will be the culmination of nine years of compulsory elementary and junior high school education for participating students.
While exact itineraries have not been decided, Mr Takei said there are plans to interact with Singapore students and also visit sites such as the Singapore Zoo.
“I would like to deepen international understanding and make the ward’s junior high schools more attractive,” he had said last Friday.
Each student will be expected to pay around 70,000 yen (S$647), an amount pegged to estimated costs incurred from domestic trips to cities including Kyoto and Nara in previous years.
Spillover costs will be borne by Minato ward’s taxpayers, with around 500,000 yen budgeted for each student.
The budget tabled for the trip is around 510 million yen; students are expected to travel between June and September 2024.
The high cost of the trip has raised eyebrows in Japan, where inflation hit a record 4.1 per cent in January before slowing to 2.8 per cent in August – a rate still above the central bank’s 2 per cent target.
One online commenter reacting to a report by the FNN Prime Online news site called for more transparency from the authorities, saying that Minato residents “won’t be convinced unless the trip’s breakdown and details are presented”.
“If the travel cost is over 500,000 yen, the flight must be in business class and the hotel (Marina) Bay Sands,” wrote another user on X, formerly Twitter.
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