No student loans in Japan?

To make a very long story short: My girlfriend, who has no completed education after high school diploma, wants to go abroad - preferably the UK - and do her undergraduate / bachelor's degree there. Her parents can't afford to pay for her school fees and living expenses in the UK, and tell her to find a school in Japan. They pay everything for her, but not if she goes abroad, an idea they're strictly against. My girlfriend lives alone and does part-time jobs, she does not live with her parents.

In my home country, children are not dependent on their parents after they finish high school and move on their own. They're considered adults, and can basically do anything they want with their life, even oppose their parents' wishes, by taking loans and choosing whatever study they want. I know this isn't a natural right in every country of the world, but is it really impossible in Japan?

Can't a Japanese citizen, 21 years old, take some kind of student loan to pay off her own education without relying on parents' money? And then just work hard after graduation and pay it back?

Is it true what her parents have told her - that student loans don't exist in Japan?

If she has to listen to her parents, she has to go to a 2-year university in Japan and in no way realize her dreams and do what she wants with her life.

Akaso,

Student loans do exist in Japan, but I think they are normally taken out by the parents rather than students themselves.
If she is keen to study in the UK, she could look into the Working Holiday Visa.

I know of people who (for financial reasons as well) went first onto 2-year college in Japan, worked in Japan after that, saved some money, then went on to further their studies, in a 4-year university in Japan, then onto graduate studies overseas (on the merit of her studies in Japan). So what she is trying to do is not impossible if you look at things on a bit longer term.

This is not really an answer to your question on loans, but in Japan, the lawful age of being under the guardianship of parents is 19. Once a person is 20, the parents have no lawful responsibility for their child.

I think that in truth, your friend's parents are concerned about sending a young woman to a far away land they're not even familiar with, moreover if she has a boyfriend there.

Personally as a parent and also as a person who once was a Japanese daughter, I think that the best and most adult way for her is to finance herself (doesn't have to be by loan, could be Working Holiday), list up good reasons for her parents showing why she needs to go abroad, introduce her foreign boyfriend to the parents so that they'd know he will not get her in trouble. The best way is for everyone to acknowledge the situation and to be happy.

Meanwhile it's nice that you respect that things are a bit different here between parents and children. In any case, I don't think any parent would enjoy seeing their child end up feeling misery, even if that's what they need to go through.