Pro-North Korea high school students must be treated equally

要約

The education ministry Feb. 20 revised an ordinance to exclude so-called Korean high schools or pro-North Korea high schools from the government’s tuition-waiver program. This change will cause various problems.

First, the revision violates the principle of an education program designed to ensure that all high school students in Japan receive an education regardless of the financial condition of their families. Excluding children attending Korean high schools violates the principle of equality under the law as stipulated by Article 14 of the Constitution.

The government will have difficulty justifying the decision as not discriminatory to students of Korean high schools because the tuition-waiver program covers so-called international schools, and schools with close ties to China and South Korea as well.

The decision could also fan prejudice and intolerance in Japanese society toward people who have different views, especially with regard to historical issues.

Education minister Mr. Hakubun Shimomura said Dec. 28 that the government would not be able to get the public to support a tuition-waiver program that includes pro-North Korea schools because they have close ties with the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), which acts as North Korea’s de facto diplomatic mission in Tokyo, and because there has been no progress toward resolving the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Children attending Korean high schools have had nothing to do with North Korea’s nuclear weapons program or the abduction of Japanese nationals. Excluding them will not help to resolve these problems. The right of foreign residents of Japan to study their languages and history of their countries at schools they have established also should be upheld.

The government should also consider what the international community will say about the decision. Criticism of Japan will likely be strong.

日本語の抄訳はウィークリー3月9日号のP18に掲載されています。