Japanese Local Governments Cut Subsidies to Chosen Schools to One-Quarter Over 11 Years

▲Chosun School in Japan, Fukuoka Elementary School

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] It has been revealed that subsidies provided by Japanese local governments to Korean schools for ethnic Koreans in Japan have decreased to one-quarter over the past 11 years.

On the 7th, Sankei Shimbun reported this citing internal documents from Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Last year, a total of 210.55 million yen (approximately 2.2 billion KRW) in subsidies was provided to 63 Korean schools by 11 prefectural governments and 92 municipal governments in Japan, a decrease of 6.99 million yen (approximately 72.76 million KRW) compared to the previous year.

Compared to the 840 million yen (approximately 8.74 billion KRW) that Japanese local governments supported Korean schools in 2009, this amount has decreased to one-quarter.

Subsidies from Japanese local governments to Korean schools are provided to the schools as operating expenses or to families as parental support.

Korean schools are not recognized as "schools" under Japan's School Education Act.

Although prefectural governments approve them as "miscellaneous schools" and provide subsidies accordingly, even those have significantly decreased.

Korean schools have faced discrimination in Japan, such as being excluded from the free high school education program.

Japan's free high school education system was introduced in April 2010 during the Democratic Party administration, and initially, Korean schools affiliated with the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) were also scheduled to be included in the program.

However, following North Korea's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November of the same year, then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered a freeze on the review, delaying the application, and in February 2013, after the launch of Shinzo Abe's second administration, the Japanese government decided to exclude Korean schools from the free education program.

This led to a sharp decline in subsidies provided by local governments to Korean schools.

The Korean schools argued that the exclusion from the free education program was illegal and filed lawsuits against the Japanese government in five regions, but the Supreme Court of Japan ruled against the plaintiffs in all five cases.

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