Japan Press Weekly

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2011 April 20 - 26 [NORTH KOREA]

Respect basic right to study for students in Korean schools in Japan

Children are not to blame

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry last November decided on the standards for tuition-free schools for non-Japanese students in Japan, stating that their educational contents should not be criteria for being designated as a tuition-free school. This means that all ten Korean high schools across Japan should be tuition-free.

The ministry, however, suspended procedures on making Korean high schools tuition-free, after being instructed to do so by Prime Minister Kan Naoto due to the subsequent shelling incident by North Korea on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea. At present, the education ministry is still rejecting appeals to apply the system to Korean schools and various legal objections to the administrative decision.

The Kan administration’s response amounts to bullying the children studying at Korean schools in Japan, who are not to be held responsible for the situation on the Korean Peninsula, as retaliation for the shelling. It is unjust to use the tension on the Korean Peninsula as a hurdle to applying the tuition-free system to Korean schools in Japan.

Based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the government has the responsibility to guarantee the education of children of foreign residents in Japan. Most children of North Korean and South Korean descent in Japan were born in Japan, and will most likely keep on living as members of the Japanese society. Logic states that the Japanese government should guarantee their right to education.

The expert panel, in drafting the standards for the free-tuition high school system, pointed out the need for the application to be judged objectively and not be affected by diplomatic concerns. The action that the Kan government took runs counter to this criterion.

It is unacceptable for the government, which is responsible to work to abolish all forms of discrimination, to institutionalize a new form of discrimination. Tuition-free Korean high schools are an immediate must.