Kake Gakuen: "All Korean Interviewees Scored Zero Is True... No Intent to Discriminate"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Regarding the suspicion that Korean applicants were unfairly given a score of 0 in the entrance interview at a Japanese private university, the university in question admitted to giving Korean examinees a score of 0, Asahi Shimbun reported on the 11th. However, the university claimed that some of the failed Korean applicants passed through other admission methods and that there were also Japanese applicants who received a score of 0, arguing that there was no discrimination against Koreans.

According to the report, seven Koreans took the 'Recommendation Admission A Method' entrance exam for the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Okayama University of Science, operated by Kake Gakuen, held in November last year. The university stated that all seven examinees were given a score of 0 in the interview due to issues with their conversational ability, and all of them failed. The University Entrance Examination Office of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology reported this information to the House of Councillors Budget Committee meeting the day before.

The university claimed that although all seven Korean applicants failed the recommendation admission screening, four of them passed through the general admission and privately funded international student admissions, stating, "There was no intention to discriminate against Korean examinees."

The Ministry of Education explained that Okayama University of Science said, "There are multiple Japanese examinees who also received a score of 0 in the interview," and "The interview evaluations were verified multilayeredly by responsible personnel. Including these examinees, a total of four Koreans passed through the general admission or privately funded international student admissions," Asahi reported.

The University Entrance Examination Office of the Ministry of Education said, "At this point, it is not a stage to judge the appropriateness of the entrance exam, and we will request an explanation from the university to further ascertain the facts."

Earlier, a Japanese weekly magazine reported in its March 12 issue, released on the 5th of this month, based on testimony from a university official and internal documents, that the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Okayama University of Science gave a score of 0 to all eight Korean applicants in the Recommendation Admission A Method interview held on November 16 last year, resulting in all of them failing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.