Background (東京朝鮮中高級学校) During
the Japanese occupation of Korea between 1905 and 1945, many Koreans migrated to Japan, some by force and some voluntarily. In the wake of the collapse of colonial rule in Korea in 1945, approximately two million Koreans had returned to their homeland, whilst approximately 600,000 remained in Japan. However, these schools soon faced restrictions. The American Occupation administration instructed the Japanese Ministry of Education to close Korean ethnic schools. Protests broke out. Clashes between the Japanese government and the ethnic Korean population peaked with the
Hanshin Education Incident on 24 April 1948, in which 1,732 people were arrested. The same day, Japanese police went to Chōsen schools, forced out the students and nailed the doors shut. In 1949, all Chōsen schools were closed.
Revival and relationship with North Korea Set up in October 1945, the League of Koreans (also known as the Choryŏn) initially opened and operated the schools, until the organisation was disbanded due to its socialist ties in 1949. Then, after
the Korean War armistice was signed, the Choryŏn was restarted under the new name
Chongryon and they were able to reopen the schools. Although the schools were reopened, their situation was still precarious. The only way for Chōsen schools to be both accredited and free of Japanese interference was to gain 'miscellaneous school' status, which is granted by local authorities, not the central Ministry of Education. Various difficulties for Chōsen schools and Koreans in Japan arise from the Chongryon's links to
Pyongyang. In the immediate decades after the Korean War, North Korea far outstripped South Korea economically. As a growing industrial economy, North Korea funnelled funds through the Chongryon to finance Chōsen schools, along with parents paying tuition fees.
Rise in anti-Korean sentiment On 17 September 2002, the Japanese media reported that, back in the 1970s and 1980s,
Japanese citizens had been abducted by the North Korean government. In addition to
North Korea's nuclear tests, the abductions resulted in a rise of anti-Korean sentiment. There were reports of Chōsen gakkō students being spat on, receiving verbal abuse, and having their distinctive uniforms slashed.
Japan withdraws tuition fee funding In 2010, the Japanese
Ministry of Education, Culture Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) implemented the “Tuition Waiver and Tuition Support Fund Program for High School Education (Tuition Waiver Program)”. This new scheme would lessen the financial burden on families by making high school free for public, private, international and foreign schools. However, the decision was made to exclude schools affiliated with the Chongryon. Tokyo Korean Junior and Senior High School charges per year to attend, which many Korean immigrants struggle to afford, so a tuition fee waver would make a big difference to poorer parents who have no choice but to send their children to Japanese schools. In the 2011 fiscal year, the
Osaka Prefectural Government ended subsidies to an educational corporation which operates ten Chōsen gakkō. In February 2013, the Japanese central government, citing the development of the North Korean nuclear program and a lack of cooperation regarding the
North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens, On May 17, 2013, the United Nations Economic and Social Council released a report citing "The Committee is concerned at the exclusion of Korean schools from the State party’s tuition-waiver programme for high school education, which constitutes discrimination". By 2020, the Chongryon community had organised over 200 protests against the government's decision.
Legal challenges and school closures Lawsuits have been launched throughout Japan against these unfair treatments against Chōsen gakkō students as discrimination based on ethnic origin and heritage. In July 2017, the
Osaka District Court ruled that the exclusion of
Osaka Korean High School from the high school tuition fee waiver program was unlawful. A few months later, the Tokyo District Court ruled against a Chōsen gakkō school, upholding the Japanese government's decision to withhold tuition subsidies. The Supreme Court's ruled in August 2019 that it was lawful to exclude
Tokyo Korean Junior and Senior High School, the largest Chōsen school in the country, from the scheme. In 2023, three more schools in the Osaka prefecture closed due to a lack of financial support from both Tokyo and Pyongyang.
Hate speech In November 2019, former high ranking member of far-right group
Zaitokukai was fined for calling Chōsen schools “spy training centers".
COVID-19 pandemic At the beginning of the
COVID-19 pandemic, when the Japanese government was distributing
face masks to kindergartens, they chose not to distribute them to Chōsen gakkō. There was public outcry in South Korea, and the collective efforts of 10 civic groups resulted in donations of 1,500 masks and over .
2023 investigations from Seoul authorities In December 2023, the
South Korean Ministry of Unification began investigating actor
Kwon Hae-hyo, producer Cho Eun-seong and film director
Kim Jee-woon for unauthorized contact with North Koreans after making a documentary highlighting discrimination in Chōsen schools. Article 9 of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act states that South Korean citizens must notify the Ministry of Unification in advance if they intend to contact a citizen of North Korea, even if abroad. This legislation especially applies to those seeking to make contact with people linked to Chōsen schools that are affiliated with the
Chongryon (the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan), which has ties to North Korea. However, if the person being contacted is a citizen of South Korea, no advance notification is required. Cho Eun-seong stated, "in the past 10 years, I have made several documentaries related to Koreans in Japan and this is the first time something like this has happened." The news of Seoul's investigations sparked outrage in Japan, with many fearing they could be suspected as a spy for simply speaking to someone North Korean. A restaurant owner, who is an ethnic Korean and third-generation immigrant in Japan, stated, "It’s perfectly natural for Koreans who have been in Japan for several generations to be on familiar terms with [North Koreans]. It’s certainly nothing to report to the authorities." == Schools ==