Indonesia Launches Free School Meal Program with Support from Japan; Ishiba Currying Favor with New President

By Nobuteru Sakuda / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

15:34 JST, January 12, 2025

JAKARTA — A free school meal program began this month in Indonesia, with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba promising support during a meeting with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Saturday.

For Prabowo, who took office in October last year, providing free school meals is a signature policy. The support Ishiba offered includes dispatching school meal program specialists.

On Jan. 6, children at an elementary school in Jakarta enjoyed fried chicken for lunch among the approximately 600,000 school meals provided across the country that day.

The initiative aims to address poverty in remote islands and redress economic disparities. The program is expected to serve around 80 million recipients by the full-scale implementation date in 2029, with the budget projected to expand to as much as 450 trillion rupiahs (about ¥4.4 trillion), which has raised concerns over funding sources.

Countries seeking to build stronger ties with the new president have announced their support. In November last year, China said it would provide funding for the school meal program, and the United States announced to support in expanding milk production in the same month.