Help desks at a local government office where public assistance applications are accepted (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

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When he was young, Maito Nakamura had a rough childhood as he was physically abused by his grandmother and neglected by his mother.

He managed to complete a high school correspondence course when he was 20 and work two years at a hospital to save up money to attend nursing college.

But he experienced flashbacks from his traumatic childhood when he took courses on pediatrics and maternity. And his failing mental health made it difficult to continue his part-time job.

Then, when he applied for public assistance at a local government office, Nakamura was told that “university is a luxury,” and that he would not be able to do both.

Faced with the stark choice of leaving university or receiving public assistance, Nakamura was forced to drop out.

The 33-year-old Osaka resident, who now heads a group providing support to abused children, said it is ridiculous that the government is still holding tight to an archaic rule from a time when post-secondary education was more of a rarity.

The welfare ministry is refusing to change the 1963 rule, which prohibits welfare recipients from attending higher education, despite calls from critics who argue doing so would give poor people better opportunities in life and lift more people out of poverty.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations is among those urging the government to scrap the rule.

It said that 80 percent of children from average households now attend college or university, but only 40 percent from households on public assistance go on to higher education.

The calls to scrap the prohibition come after a committee of the Social Security Council reviewed the public assistance program and compiled a draft document that left the rule unchanged.

The draft said the country needs to maintain a balance between those receiving public assistance and other households where students work part time to pay their way through junior college or a university.

Welfare ministry officials said some high school graduates immediately enter the workforce instead of going on to higher education.

But the JFBA countered that providing the opportunity for higher education to children from families on public assistance would improve their ability to earn a living in the long run.

The draft document focused on other ways to allow those from low-income households to attend university, such as reducing or exempting tuition for children from such households and expanding the availability of scholarships in a system otherwise heavily dominated by loans.

But the JFBA said the scholarships currently on offer do not guarantee that recipients can actually pursue higher education.