Essay Final Draft

Japanese Government Should Support Korean Schools

How many Japanese people know about Korean schools in Japan? There are about 8,300 children who go to 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. Korean school was built after World War 2 to give ethnic education to Korean people who were taken to Japan from Korean Peninsula during the war.

     In 2010, Japanese government started the policy “Act on free tuition fee at public high schools / High school enrollment support fund.” It makes tuition free at public high schools and establishes the High school enrollment support fund system at private high schools. The purposes are to make family educational expenses easier and to contribute to equal opportunity in upper secondary education. (Japan. 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 in November 2010 stopped the sorting procedures. Former prime minister Naoto Kan told former Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Yoshiaki Takaki on August 29 2011, shortly before his resignation, to resume sorting procedures to include Korean high schools in the government's tuition free program (“Unclear why”).

     Japanese government should support Korean high schools’ tuition fee in the same way as Japanese high schools and other foreign schools in Japan. The main reasons for this are that 1) Korean children also have the right to receive education equally, and 2) education and diplomacy are completely different problem.

     One reason is that Korean children also have the right to receive education equally. It is one of the basic human rights to receive equal education. Excluding Korean students from the government policy of free tuition fee at public high school means abuse of human rights. 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.

     The attitude of Japanese government seems to discriminate Korean. 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 (“Pro-N. Korean”).

     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: Abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea are serious issues. Japanese government is doing economic sanction against North Korea. The contents of education in North Korean school such as the compulsion of personality cult of Kim Il Sung cannot be agreed.

Another reason is that although Japan has diplomatic problems with North Korea as mentioned above, Japanese government should treat education and diplomacy completely separated. The expert panel, in drafting the standards for the free-tuition high school system, 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 ("Respect Basic"). 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 ("Respect Basic").

     Therefore, Japanese government should support Korean high schools’ tuition fee in the same way as Japanese high schools and other foreign schools in Japan. For one thing, Korean children also have the right to achieve education equally. Excluding Korean high schools from the government policy of free tuition fee of high school means abuse of human rights and discrimination. For another, education and diplomacy are completely different problem. Although Japanese government is having serious problems with North Korea, Korean schools have nothing to do with those diplomatic issues. Thus, Japanese government should resolve to support Korean schools’ tuition fee immediately.

Works Cited

Japan. MEXT. “Free Tuition Fee at Public High Schools / High School Enrollment Support Fund System.” www.mext.go.jp/english/elsec/1303524.htm. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.

“Pro-N. Korean Schools’ Tuition Likely to be Free.” Daily Yomiuri. 29 Aug. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.

“Respect Basic Right to Study for Students in Korean Schools in Japan.” Japan Press Weekly. 10 Feb. 2011. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

“Unclear Why Pro-Pyongyang Schools Should be Free.” Daily Yomiuri. 10 Sep. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.