「奨学金」の社会問題化過程の基礎的分析 : 2004年以降の全国紙5紙の掲載記事を対象に

This paper seeks to reveal the process by which the scholarship system in Japan became a political and social issue. In 2017, the new national grant scholarship program for university students was approved by the Diet. This was an historical change of the national scholarship system because it had consisted of only loan programs since it was established more than 70 years earlier. This research uses the method of social constructionism and analyzes 22,008 articles from the 5 national newspapers between 2004 and 2017. After classifying the objects, it became evident that social and political views of the scholarship system had several shifts during the previous 14 years.
Before the decade of the 2010s, the Ministry of Finance and the Board of Audit criticized the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), the administrative agency of national scholarship system, about increasing the delay of student loan repayments. This was a widely debated point at that time. Therefore, JASSO introduced a new and a more stringent policy and administration for loan scholarship system.
After in decade of the 2010s, national newspapers criticized JASSO’s new collection policy from the perspective of young, low income university graduates and the structural problem of a loan only scholarship system, Newspapers also repeatedly reported on social practices for loan repayment relief for the recent graduates, repayment of their loans. This constructed social view points at that time.
In 2016, an election of the House Councilors was held, and it was the first time after extension of the suffrage to 18 and 19 years old youth. In the election, all political parties insisted on the need for a new grant scholarship program. The scholarship system was constructed as a political view point at that time.
The historical change in national scholarship was realized by these shifts of social and political view points.