EDITORIAL: Tuition-free schooling

The Diet is considering proposed legislation to make high school education tuition-free.

On the issue of eligibility of chosen gakko schools for Korean children, education minister Tatsuo Kawabata has indicated that Japan's diplomatic disputes with North Korea will not affect the government's decision.

"We are not considering the eligibility question from the viewpoint of excluding" Korean schools, he said.

The question was brought to the fore after Hiroshi Nakai, state minister in charge of the abduction issue, proposed barring Korean schools from the tuition-free program. He cited sanctions that Tokyo imposed to protest North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and abductions of Japanese citizens.

Late last month, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama blurted out that there was no way to check the content of education (at Korean schools) "because Japan does not have diplomatic relations (with North Korea)."

But the curricula at chosen gakko are for the most part based on those adopted by Japanese schools. Not only that, they are open to the public. Thus, it's not hard to examine the content of education at these schools.

Last week, some 20 members of the Lower House Committee on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology visited a Korean senior high school in Tokyo.

Sure, Korean schools in Japan have links with North Korea. That's because their operations are partly financed by subsidies from Pyongyang.

Portraits of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder, and Kim Jong Il, his son and the current leader, hang in the classrooms of chosen gakko senior high schools. For school excursions, the students visit Pyongyang via China. They are also exposed to North Korea's juche (self-reliance) philosophy, which is promoted by the regime, in classes on Korean history and other subjects.

The issue of aid to students learning at these schools should not be considered from the viewpoint of how Tokyo perceives the extraordinary regime in Pyongyang. The right of children to learn must be guaranteed as a matter of principle without allowing discrimination to enter the picture.

Excluding chosen gakko schools from the program on grounds Japan maintains sanctions would be tantamount to punishing children who have nothing to do with these issues. That would be grossly unfair.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Japan's annexation of the Korean Peninsula in 1910. We should not forget that Korean residents in Japan have been living under an unjust and heavy burden brought on by Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Koreans who opted to remain in Japan even after the end of World War II then had to decide where their loyalties lay when their homeland was divided into North and South Korea. There are Korean residents who support the North, and those who back the South. And then there are those who distance themselves from both sides.

Korean residents in Japan have faced persistent discrimination and found it hard even to use their Korean names. Chosen gakko schools supported by the North Korean government have served as a source of emotional support for the Korean community in Japan.

Currently, nearly half of the students at these schools have South Korean citizenship.

Their parents have widely different stances toward North Korea, from supportive to antagonistic. Yet, they all share the wish to cherish their own culture and language.

The issue of whether to provide government aid to chosen gakko schools should be considered from the viewpoint of guaranteeing children the right to a proper education.

Children at these schools are disturbed and hurt by remarks that link their schools to the issues of North Korea's abductions of Japanese and nuclear ambitions. Japanese politicians should use their imagination to understand the effects of their words.

Osaka Governor Toru Hashimoto has questioned the appropriateness of offering state aid to these schools. "North Korea is like a gangster organization. Is it acceptable to offer government subsidies to schools which have ties with a gangster organization?" he said.

But in this winter's national high school rugby championship tournament, Osaka Korean High School, which represented Osaka Prefecture, advanced to the semifinals. There is no valid reason for discriminating against students at a school which has put down such deep roots in the local community.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 8