Japanese government should support Korean school
There are about 8,300 children who go to North Korean school in Japan. The half of them is North Korean, the other half of them is South Korean, and several percent is Japanese. There are 73 North Korean schools in Japan.
In 2010, Japanese government started the policy “Free tuition fee at public high schools / High school enrollment support fund system” (MEXT). However, North Korean schools are not included in the policy and Japanese government does not support them, so the students are still paying their whole tuition. The occurrence of North Korea's artillery shelling of a South Korean island last November stopped the sorting procedures. Former prime minister Naoto Kan told former Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Yoshiaki Takaki on August 29, shortly before his resignation, to resume sorting procedures to include Korean high schools in the government's tuition free program (Daily Yomiuri).
Japanese government should make Korean high school free in the same way as Japanese high school. The main reasons for this are that 1) Korean children also have the right to achieve education equally, and 2) education and diplomacy are completely different problem.
First, Korean children also have the right to achieve education equally. It is one of the basic human rights to achieve equal education. Excluding Korean students from the government policy of free tuition fee at public high school means abuse of human rights and racial discrimination. The attitude of Japanese government is criticized by Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of the United Nations. Also, Amnesty International Japan, a famous NGO investigating for human rights issue, requested Japanese government to execute the advice.
Second, Japan has diplomatic problems with North Korea, however, Japanese government should treat education and diplomacy completely separated. The ministry ruled that foreign schools, such as international schools outside the national school system, are appropriate in the policy of free education. Yet, the Korean schools do not follow with the policy's criteria. It is clearly mentioned that the schools must be equal to Japanese high schools through checks with the home countries concerned, and that their curricula are trusted by an international organization. However, a majority of the expert panel thought it reasonable to consider the North Korean schools as having similar courses as Japanese high schools because many Japanese universities have granted admission to graduates of the Korean schools, because their study course rather follows their Japanese same part (Daily Yomiuri). The expert panel, in drafting the standards for the free-tuition high school system, also revealed 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 (Japan Press Weekly). 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 (Japan Press Weekly).
However, there are also opposite opinions. Some members of the Democratic Party of Japan criticized that the former prime minister Naoto Kan resumed the procedure to include pro-Pyongyang high schools in the government's tuition free program without enough discussion in the party and started gathering signatures. There are some reasons: Japanese government is doing economic sanction against North Korea. The contents of education in North Korean school such as the compulsion of personality cult cannot be agreed.
Therefore, Japanese government should make Korean high school free in the same way as Japanese high school. The main reasons for this are that 1) Korean children also have the right to achieve education equally, and 2) education and diplomacy are completely different problem.
