Hundreds of ethnic Korean students rallied in Tokyo Friday calling for the return of Japanese state subsidies for schools funded by a pro-Pyongyang group. The group were protesting a 2013 move when Japan stopped payments to 10 Korean high schools, with Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura saying they were "under influence of Chongryon," the de facto North Korean embassy in Japan. But pupils and teachers hit back Friday.
"Students who go to Korean high schools are regular youngsters who were born and raised, and will continue to live in Japan," Shin Gil-Ung, 65, the principal of a Tokyo Korean school, told reporters ahead of the rally. "We hope the discriminatory measure will be lifted as soon as possible, and we are calling for further support from the Japanese public," he said, after submitting a formal protest to the education ministry. Until recently, these schools - to which ethnic Japanese people are also free to send their children - received the same local government support as any other foreign school in Japan.