Tokyo Rally Demands Equal Treatment for Korean Schools as 45,000 Sign Petition

A petition puts Korean schoolchildren at the centre of Japan's rights debate

Rights groups from Korea, Japan, Europe and Australia gathered at the House of Councillors Members' Office Building in Tokyo on Thursday, submitting a petition signed by more than 45,000 people calling for Korean schools to be included under Japan's Basic Act on Children. Organised by the International Network in Solidarity with Korean Schools, the demonstration demanded immediate action over what campaigners describe as longstanding discrimination against ethnic Korean educational institutions.

The dispute concerns Chosen schools, also called Chosun schools, which educate children from Japan's Zainichi Korean community. Many of their families have lived in Japan for generations. Campaigners say successive government decisions have shut these schools out of high school tuition assistance, earthquake recovery aid, early childhood education benefits and support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ha Sang-gyun, head of the Citizens' Group in Solidarity with Korean Schools, argued that excluding the schools conflicts with international standards, including Japan's commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. He pointed to the Basic Act on Children, described as enacted in 2023, which sets protection of children's fundamental human rights and freedom from discriminatory treatment among its basic principles.

Campaigners say Korean schools remain outside the law's scope despite those principles. Their demand brings together two linked concerns: whether children receive equal protection and whether their families have equal access to financial help for education.

Makiko Kishi, a lawmaker from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan who attended the demonstration, criticised the administration for taking increasingly hostile positions toward foreigners. Kim Mi-ra, representing the United States rights group Koreans for Woori Schools, described denying support to children as an act against humanity and a blatant violation of human rights.

The government has defended exclusions affecting the schools by referring to their connections with North Korea, diplomatic concerns and possible misuse of public money. Families and campaigners argue that children living in Japan should receive educational support regardless of disputes between governments.

How colonial history shaped the schools

Zainichi means residing in Japan. The community's history is rooted in Japan's colonisation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, when hundreds of thousands of Koreans came to Japan, either voluntarily or through forced conscription, to work in mines and factories.

Approximately two million Koreans remained in Japan after its defeat in World War II. In 1945, Korean residents established nearly 500 schools to teach their children Korean language, history and culture. These subjects had been suppressed under colonial rule, when Japan banned the use of Korean names and language.

Allied occupation authorities regarded the schools as influenced by communism. They ordered many to close and dissolved the League of Koreans, known as Choryon, which had initially operated them. The closures interrupted a community effort to restore cultural education after decades of colonial control.

The San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1952 brought another major change. Koreans and Taiwanese lost Japanese citizenship. The account of this period describes the resulting statelessness and exclusion from social security systems, voting rights and opportunities for public employment.

Japanese authorities classified former Korean colonial subjects as having Chosun nationality. Chosun in this administrative usage refers to geographical origin on the Korean Peninsula, rather than citizenship in North Korea. The distinction matters because a registration label and citizenship in a particular state are different things.

Most Zainichi Koreans retaining Chosun nationality are described as technically stateless because they lost Japanese citizenship without acquiring citizenship in either North Korea or South Korea. Their position helps explain why the schools' campaign is also a debate about the rights of residents whose families have deep roots in Japan.

Why school classification affects public support

Pro-North Koreans formed Chongryun, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, in 1955. The organisation established the Chosen school network to provide ethnic education. Japan's refusal to support that education left the schools dependent on tuition paid by families and money from North Korea channelled through Chongryun.

By 1975, every existing Chosen school had obtained miscellaneous school status under Japanese education law. That category allowed the institutions to operate, but it was distinct from Article 1 schools, the category covering regular Japanese schools. Students faced restrictions on taking university entrance examinations unless they completed additional qualifications.

Miscellaneous school status later became central to arguments over assistance. A school could legally provide education while remaining outside a particular benefit programme. For families, the practical issue was whether the education their children received qualified for the same public support available elsewhere.

The schools' relationship with Chongryun also became a focus of government scrutiny. Officials examined connections involving teaching, staffing and finances, while campaigners argued that the resulting exclusions placed political disputes ahead of children's educational needs.

Tuition assistance became a diplomatic dispute

Japan's Ministry of Education announced its Tuition Waiver and Tuition Support Fund Program for high school education in 2010. The programme was initially designed to cover Japanese public and private high schools, schools teaching foreign curricula and international schools.

Political pressure changed that approach. The government revised a ministerial ordinance to exclude all ten high schools supported by Chongryun. Officials cited North Korea's nuclear programme and the unresolved abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents during the 1970s and 1980s.

The National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea, known as Sukuukai, actively pressed for exclusion. It argued that financial assistance would weaken Japan's diplomatic position, treating support for ethnic education as support for the North Korean government.

Education Minister Shimomura Hakubun, serving under the second Abe administration, announced in 2013 that Chosen schools would remain excluded. He cited their relationship with Chongryun in educational content, personnel and finance.

The government received 30,510 submissions during public consultation. Approximately 52 percent supported exclusion and 46 percent opposed it. The Ministry of Education proceeded despite that divided response, and the exclusion took effect in February 2013.

Public high schools charged approximately 117,000 yen annually, while Chosen high schools charged an average of 320,000 yen. Osaka Korean High School charged as much as 444,000 yen. Assistance under the programme would have covered all or part of tuition according to household income, but Chosen school students were ineligible for that relief.

Parents therefore faced a financial consequence alongside the political argument. Their children's schools charged substantial tuition, yet students could not receive help through a programme that included other institutions outside Japan's regular public school system.

Court challenges brought conflicting decisions

The Osaka District Court ruled in favour of Chosen schools in July 2017. It found that removing the schools from the tuition programme for political and diplomatic reasons was unconstitutional and invalid. The court recognised the schools' historical setting and affirmed the state's responsibility to guarantee equality and the right to develop an ethnic identity.

The Tokyo, Nagoya and Fukuoka district courts subsequently ruled against plaintiffs in other cases. By July 2021, the Supreme Court had dismissed final appeals from Chosen schools. The legal campaign therefore produced a favourable judgment in Osaka without securing access to the programme through the later appeals.

The chronology shows how disputes over one form of assistance developed alongside exclusions from other programmes:

• 2010: Japan introduced its high school tuition assistance programme, initially designed to include foreign and international schools.
• 2011: Chosen schools were excluded from recovery aid after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
• February 2013: The exclusion of Chosen high schools from tuition assistance took effect.
• July 2017: The Osaka District Court ruled in favour of the schools.
• 2019: Forty Chosen kindergartens were omitted from free early childhood education and care benefits.
• July 2021: The Supreme Court had dismissed final appeals from Chosen schools.
• 2023: The Basic Act on Children became the latest focus of campaigners' complaints about exclusion.
• Thursday's Tokyo rally: Rights groups submitted more than 45,000 signatures demanding inclusion under the children's law.

The court cases concerned tuition assistance, while the Tokyo petition seeks equal treatment under a broader framework for children's protection. Both campaigns focus on whether the schools' political associations should determine the benefits available to their pupils.

Exclusions reached disaster recovery and pandemic aid

Chosen schools were left out of recovery aid distributed to other educational institutions after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Campaigners cite that decision as evidence that unequal treatment has extended beyond ordinary school fees.

Forty Chosen kindergartens were also omitted when Japan introduced free early childhood education and care programmes in 2019. That exclusion affected families at the beginning of their children's education, before the high school tuition dispute would become relevant to them.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education denied students at Chosen University access to the Emergency Student Support Handout for Continuing Studies. The programme offered up to 200,000 yen to students experiencing financial hardship.

The ministry eventually included six foreign universities after criticism from nongovernmental organisations. Chosen University remained excluded because of its miscellaneous school status. The administrative category that allowed it to operate therefore also determined its students' access to that emergency payment.

Campaigners now place the Basic Act on Children alongside those earlier decisions. They argue that a framework built around fundamental rights and protection from discrimination should include children attending Korean schools. The Tokyo demonstration did not provide a timetable for a government decision on the petition.

Yoo Jae-hyun, an activist with the Choson School Sponsorship Association in Germany, addressed the principle behind the campaign. He argued that children should be protected from the consequences of historical events and disputes between countries:

No matter the reason, children should never be made to bear political responsibility for events of the past. They should be protected, not forced to shoulder responsibility.

What children learn inside Chosen schools

Chosen schools' ties to North Korea strongly influence how they are perceived in Japan. Classrooms display portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, and the institutions maintain connections with Chongryun. Opponents of public assistance have accused them of brainwashing pupils and encouraging hostility toward Japan.

Academic research and classroom observations described in the account present a more complicated picture. Fieldwork by Japanese scholars found substantial teaching about Japanese society and the wider world, with an emphasis on friendship with Japan.

Curriculum revisions between 1993 and 1995 removed academic subjects related to the Kim family and increased time devoted to Japanese history and society. Students begin learning about Japanese society and history in Grade 3. Korean geography begins in Grade 5, followed by Korean history in Grade 6.

The schools operate longer hours than regular Japanese schools. That schedule accommodates standard subjects intended to prepare children for life in Japanese society, alongside Korean language, history and geography. The two parts of the curriculum serve both everyday participation in Japan and preservation of a minority culture.

Many teachers are Zainichi Koreans of the third generation. They place importance on critical thinking and independent thought rather than learning through repetition alone. Students and graduates commonly call their institutions uri hakkyo, meaning our school, a phrase reflecting their community ties.

Students describe a place to belong

Second year high school student Park Sang-joo explained that everyday life in Japanese society provides few opportunities to speak Korean or feel a sense of Korean identity. For students in that position, the schools provide a regular setting in which language and cultural belonging can be part of daily life.

Students describe the environment as warmer and more supportive than typical Japanese schools. Their accounts present the institutions as places where children can develop an ethnic identity without shame, alongside the academic education needed to live in Japan.

Im Jinhyeok, a lawyer and graduate of Osaka Chosen High School, described the schools as sanctuaries. People sharing an ethnic background can build a community, talk about their struggles and grow through mutual help, he explained.

Im said earlier generations had entrusted the schools with creating a brighter future for children regularly exposed to discrimination and prejudice. His account connects the institutions' present role with the effort to establish Korean education after the end of colonial rule.

For these students and graduates, debates about school funding concern more than the cost of lessons. They also concern the survival of spaces where a minority community can pass its language and history to children while preparing them to participate in Japanese society.

Hate speech and attacks deepen families' concerns

Zaitokukai, the Citizens' League to Deny Special Rights for Permanent Residents in Japan, was founded in 2007. The group advocates abolishing special permanent residency status for Zainichi Koreans and has organised demonstrations involving hate speech and intimidation.

In December 2019, members gathered outside Kyoto Chosen Elementary School during school hours. They waved Imperial Japanese flags and used loudspeakers to accuse the school of training North Korean spies and demand that Chosen schools leave Japan. They damaged school property and filmed the incident for distribution online.

The Supreme Court affirmed the criminality of such protesters. Campaigners nevertheless describe continuing hostility toward the community, with schools and pupils serving as visible targets.

Professor Kotani Junko, who specialises in hate speech regulation, argues that Japanese law does not seriously tackle crimes against ethnic minorities despite the Hate Speech Elimination Act of 2016. She explains that the legislation does not criminalise hate speech or take race or ethnicity into account in its treatment of unfair discriminatory behaviour.

Female students wearing traditional Korean school uniforms have faced targeted attacks since 1994, including incidents in which assailants slashed uniforms with knives. Schools consequently instructed female students to wear those uniforms only on school grounds.

Historian Itagaki Ryuta interprets contemporary hostility toward Koreans as a modern version of colonial fear directed at the colonised. He connects it with the disorder after World War II and with the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, when Japanese police, military personnel and civilians massacred thousands of innocent Koreans following rumours that they were planning activities against Japan.

Itagaki argues that today's extreme nationalists turn a similar anxiety into hatred against accessible targets such as Chosen schools. His interpretation places current intimidation within a longer history of violence and suspicion toward Koreans in Japan.

International rights standards challenge the exclusions

Japan has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 2 requires states to respect children's rights without discrimination, including discrimination based on national, ethnic or social origin. Articles 29 and 30 support minority children's rights to develop their cultural identity, language and values.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, known as CERD, has repeatedly criticised the exclusion of Chosen schools from tuition support. In 2014, it specifically recommended that Japan revise its position and allow the schools to benefit from the High School Tuition Support Fund.

CERD's concluding observations in 2018 urged Japan to ensure equal educational opportunities for students at Chosen schools without discrimination. Campaigners say the Japanese government has largely dismissed those corrective recommendations.

Legal analysis described in the account identifies unequal scrutiny of foreign schools. The Ministry of Education, also known as MEXT, closely examined Chosen schools' curricula and alleged influence from North Korea while approving other miscellaneous schools, including institutions aligned with South Korea, without equivalent checks on teaching content or foreign government influence.

Campaigners argue that this selective approach targets a particular ethnic minority rather than applying consistent standards for educational quality. Japanese officials maintain that their decisions concern diplomacy and the potential misuse of funds, rather than discrimination based on Korean ethnicity.

The rights argument focuses on the children themselves. International human rights frameworks call for educational benefits to be available without making pupils bear the cost of political tensions between states. That concern is especially acute for stateless residents who cannot influence the foreign policies of either Japan or North Korea.

The Tokyo petition brings those principles back to a concrete demand: inclusion of Korean schools under the Basic Act on Children. Its supporters are seeking protection and support for pupils whose education has repeatedly been affected by school classification, diplomatic conflict and hostility toward their community.

Key Points

• Rights groups submitted more than 45,000 signatures at a Tokyo rally demanding inclusion of Korean schools under Japan's Basic Act on Children.
• Chosen schools serve Zainichi Korean families and combine standard academic subjects with Korean language, history and culture.
• The schools have faced exclusion from tuition assistance, earthquake recovery aid, early childhood education benefits and pandemic student support.
• Japan cites North Korea's nuclear programme, unresolved abductions, school ties to Chongryun and concerns about public funds.
• The Osaka District Court supported the schools in July 2017, while other district courts ruled against plaintiffs and final appeals were dismissed by July 2021.
• United Nations rights bodies have called for equal educational opportunities and access to tuition assistance.
• Students have faced hate speech and physical attacks, including attacks on girls wearing traditional Korean uniforms.
• Campaigners argue that children should receive equal protection regardless of historical disputes or relations between governments.