North Korean Ethnic Schools in Japan : a Source of Both Ethnic Pride and Discrimination
- Damya Kecili
- Dec 10, 2024
- 8 min read
During the Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula, that took place between 1910 and 1945, many Korean nationals were sent to Japan in order to be used as a cheap workforce. After Japan's capitulation on the 2nd of September 1945, among the 2.3 million Koreans living in Japan during this period, more than 1.4 million went back to Korea. While many of those Korean workers went back to Korea, part of this community ended up staying in Japan. This community is called Zainichi Kankokujin, or simply Zainichi (literally, “those who stay in Japan”). As of 2015, there was 500, 000 Zainichi still living in Japan.[1] To this day, Zainichi have to face strong discrimination and prejudice within the Japanese society, that considers itself as widely monoethnic, or homogeneous (tanitsu-minzoku-kokka). In 1950, 79% of Zainichi were unemployed. Between 1985 and 2005, the unemployment rate of Zainichi was still around twice as much as the rest of the Japanese population.[2] The mere fact of having Korean roots is seen as a burden by many, that tend to assimilate, and to eventually obtain Japanese naturalization. By 1980, already 102,544 ethnic Koreans acquired Japanese citizenship, giving up their Korean passports. On average, 10,000 Zainichi apply for naturalization every year.
One method that has been used by part of the Zainichi community to pass on their Korean heritage to younger generations was to create a network of Korean ethnic schools. This network spread quickly: by 1946, already 541 of those schools had been registered, including elementary, middle and high schools.[3] We can witness two types of Korean ethnic schools within Japan. Schools sponsored by the North Korean administration, that are called Chōsen gakkō, and schools sponsored by the South Korean government, that are called Kankoku gakkō. However, the education that is given in the latter is mostly in Japanese, except for language and history classes. They also account for less than one percent of the total of Korean ethnic schools' students. Chōsen gakkō, on the other hand, provide their students with an education fully in Korean, except for Japanese and English classes, and it is required for students to speak Korean within the school. After the creation of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, the Chongryon, an association that has close ties with North Korea and is used as North Korea's diplomatic representation in Japan, in 1955 Chōsen gakkō have received financial help from North Korea through the association. Between 1955 and 1993, the association helped to build 81 primary, 57 middle, 12 high schools and one university in Japan. If those schools were a way for the Chongryon to teach Korean to Zainichi children and spread « North Korea–focused nationalist ideology » in order to promote the repatriation of Zainichi in North Korea, we can witness a shift of paradigm within those schools since the beginning of the 1990s. Among the 100 000 Zainichi affiliated to the Chongryon, most no longer affiliate themselves with the North Korean regime, and enroll their children within those schools with the sole purpose of keeping their Korean heritage alive. Taking a look at how those schools operate allows us to highlight the positive impact they have regarding the students' perception of themselves and their Korean heritage compared to the rest of the Zainichi community, but also the challenges they have to face once they are back into the mainstream society, due to the supposed link those schools maintain with the North Korean regime.
Chōsen gakkō offer a wide range of classes, with a strong emphasis on Korean language, culture, history and geography. Students also attend classes in math, social sciences, natural sciences, music and art, Japanese, English and physical education.[4] History classes describe the Korean peninsula as one country that should be reunified. School trips are organized every three years in North Korea for high school students. They usually last two weeks, and include a trip to Baekdusan and Panmunjeom, near the Joint Security Area between North and South Korea. It is estimated that around 10% of the Zainichi attended Chōsen gakkō at some point during their secondary education, and that eight thousand did so from kindergarten to university. Regarding the students' nationality, they usually do not possess Japanese citizenship. After the ratification of the San Francisco Peace Treaty on April 19, 1952, Japan revoked the Japanese nationality of all former colonial subjects. The legal status of Zainichi remained unclear until 1965, when they were granted permanent residency, after Japan resumed its diplomatic relations with South Korea. For Zainichi who were affiliated with North Korea however, they had to wait until the ratification of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1979, and the International Refugee Convention and Protocol in 1982, in order to be able to apply for residentship.[5] Zainichi have now either acquired Japanese citizenship, or hold a permanent residency permit, and have a South Korean or a North Korean passport. Some even have both: that is the case of Jeong Myeong, an office worker living in Osaka, who holds a North Korean and a South Korean passport.[6]
For those students and the community surrounding them, the Korean peninsula represents their rightful birthplace that should have never been divided. In interviews conducted by Lee Il-ha with students from the Chōsen gakkō of Tokyo for his documentary A Crybaby Boxing Club, most describe Korea as a «future reunited homeland». We can witness that those schools' affiliation with North Korea changed. Indeed, while North Korea represented a « dream of home»[7] for part of the Zainichi community affiliated to the Chongryon – 90,000 of them willingly moved from Japan to North Korea between 1959 and 1984 – this paradigm widely shifted in the second half of the 1990s. Most only remain linked to the Chongryon because their children are enrolled in a Chōsen gakkō and they want to pass on their Korean heritage. The curriculum of Chōsen gakkō have also been reformed after 1994 and in the early 2000. Ideological education (sasang kyoyang kwamok), that included the official story of the life of Kim Il Sung has been abolished (Ryang 1997b: ch.2), and the portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il have been removed from every Chōsen gakkō classroom. Despite this clear change of paradigm within this part of the Zainichi community however, the narrative that we can find among the Japanese mainstream society does not reflect this reality, and Chōsen gakkō students are often targeted due to their supposed link with the North Korean regime.
The Zainichi community has always been subject to discrimination within Japan, since the country is still quite hostile to multiculturalism. But Chōsen gakkō have become even more vulnerable after Kim Jong Il admitted in September 2002 that North Korea had indeed kidnapped Japanese citizens in the 1970s and the 1980s. The North Korean government never clarified whether the Chongryon took part in those kidnappings or not. During the months following this confession, a number of verbal and physical assaults on Chōsen gakkō students, and more specifically females, whose uniforms make them easily noticeable, occurred. Those types of assaults are recurring to this day. Far right activists attempted an attack on the Chongryon headquarters on the 23rd of February 2018, and there was a break-in into a Chōsen gakkō in Kyoto on the 4th of December 2009.[8] Students are verbally harassed in public places on a daily basis. Apart from safety issues, Chōsen gakkō students face difficulties in adapting to the Japanese mainstream society. One of the main reasons is that the Japanese Ministry of Education does not recognize Chōsen gakkō as regular schools (ichijoko), but rather as non-academic schools (kakushu gakkō). Cooking and sewing schools are also considered as kakushu gakkō. Not being considered a regular school implies that Chōsen gakkō students do not qualify as applicants for universities, or any other higher institution. In order to be eligible, «graduates of ethnic schools have either to graduate from regular Japanese schools or pass the examinations for qualifying as applicants to universities and colleges».[9] As a result, many students from ethnic schools decide to take online classes so they can obtain a regular high school diploma. Since 2012 moreover, the Japanese government voted in favor of the freezing of subsidies given to Chōsen gakkō and Kankoku gakkō, as well as the end of scholarships granted to families enrolling their children in those schools.[10] The harsh discrimination, the integration issues and the cost generated by Chōsen gakkō now tend to outweigh the benefits of those schools, which are «the provision of a protective environment and peer group, encouragement of ethnic pride and fostering of the [Korean] language»,[11] and have been the main reasons for the decline of Korean ethnic schools. Many Korean ethnic schools now struggle to secure fundings and to convince students to enroll. The Korean ethnic school of Matsuyama had around 200 students in 1964. Today, barely twenty students are still enrolled.[12] If those schools were to shut down, it is unlikely that the Japanese mainstream education will successfully provide Zainichi students with Korean language and culture classes, and this heritage might be jeopardized.
While many Chōsen gakkō had to shut down since the second half of the 1990s, there are still 120 schools spread around Japan, and around 12,000 students enrolled. We can moreover witness some positive changes for this community. In July 2014, the Osaka district’s high court ordered the Zaitokukai – an ultra-nationalist political organization calling for «an end to state welfare and alleged privileges given to the Zainichi community»[13] – to pay a fine of 12.6 million yen (111,000 USD) to a Chōsen gakkō in Kyoto for having verbally assaulted students, as well as part of the school staff. This decision was indeed appealed by the Zaitokukai, but the Osaka High Court, and then the Supreme Court, eventually upheld the decision in December 2014. Shiki Tomimasu, the head council who was representing the school throughout this lawsuit stated that this event was «a groundbreaking ruling in Japanese legal history», and that it represented «a departure from past political attitudes and government apathy and intentional non-action regarding the hardships of ethnic Koreans».[14] Despite this victory however, the Zainichi community, and more specifically those affiliated to Chōsen gakkō, continue to face discrimination and prejudice, and the future of those schools remains uncertain.
By Former NKR Intern Damya Kecili
*** The views expressed herein belong solely to the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of NKR or the Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies. ***
Works Cited:
[1] Lee, Il Ha, A Crybaby Boxing Club, 2015, https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/k2vU9EFLSPSKIaovm6b?%20info=0&logo=0%20,%20https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/k2OV8PmN86sabeovm5O?info=0&logo=0.
[2] Kim, Bumsoo, “Changes in the Socio-economic Position of "Zainichi" Koreans: A Historical Overview,” Social Science Japan Journal 14(2011), pp. 233-245.
[3] Motani, Yoko. “Towards a More Just Educational Policy for Minorities in Japan: The Case of Korean Ethnic Schools.” Comparative Education 38(2)(2002), pp. 225–237.
[4] Okano, Kaori H. “Koreans in Japan: A Minority's Changing Relationship with Schools / Koreaner in Japan.” International Review of Education (50)(2)(2004), pp. 119–140.
[5] Ryang, S. & John Lie (eds.), Diaspora without Homeland: Being Korean in Japan, (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2009).
[6] E. Schings, J. Rieg, R. Murata, Japon: l'étonnant bastion nord-coréen, 2019, https://www.facebook.com/infobyarte/videos/japon-l%C3%A9tonnant-bastion-nord-cor%C3%A9en-reportage-arte/391771454826703/.
[7] Ryang & Lie, (2009).
[8] Lee, (2015).
[9] Yoko, (2002).
[10] Schings, Rieg, & Murata, (2019).
[11] Okano, (2004).
[12] LEE, Y, “The Korean Struggle to Keep their Education System alive in Japan,” July 23, 2015, Japan Times, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/23/national/social-issues/korean-struggle-keep-education-system-alive-japan/.
[13] McCurry, J, “Police in Japan Place Anti-Korean Extremist Group Zaitokukai on Watchlist,” December 04, 2014, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/04/police-japan-rightwing-anti-korean-extremist-group-zaitokukai-watchlist.
[14] Boyd, J. “Hate speech in Japan: To ban or not ban?,” March 19, 2015, Al Jazeera,
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