AN APPEAL TO THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AGAINST
THE DISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT OF ETHNIC SCHOOLS IN JAPAN

On February 21, the Asashi Shinbun reported that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (Education Ministry) has decided not to recognize the high school diplomas of graduates of ethnic Korean and Chinese schools in Japan, thereby disqualifying them from taking entrance examinations for national universities. The Ministry announcement stated, however, that full academic recognition would be accorded to the graduates of Western "international" high schools, who henceforth are to be treated on a par with Japanese students.

We believe that such a "policy," if implemented, would constitute blatant racism. National universities allow graduates of foreign high schools abroad having 12 years of schooling to sit for their examinations but refuse that right to the graduates of ethnic Korean and Chinese high schools in Japan receiving the same amount of instruction. The graduates of ethnic schools are required to take and pass a special high school equivalency exam originally designed for pupils who, for one reason or another, drop out of the secondary school system. This requirement in itself is unreasonable and discriminatory.

Moreover, while national universities are not permitted to recognize the diplomas of ethnic schools, a majority of Japan's public prefectural and municipal and private universities do honor them, permitting the graduates of these and other foreign high schools to take entrance exams. Since 1999, the rigid qualifying requirements for the equivalency exam have been progressively relaxed, but ethnic-school graduates remain at a severe disadvantage. In the past, the Education Ministry has consistently blocked efforts to ameliorate this situation, but its most recent "policy" pronouncement openly favoring Western "international" schools is nothing short of astonishing.

In 1994, the Japanese government ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 28 of that covenant requires ratifying parties to "make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means," and Article 30 states that where "ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is indigenous shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language." Denying ethnic-school diploma holders the right to take university entrance exams is a flagrant violation of the UN Convention.

Education Ministry "policy" also runs counter to the dominant trend toward the greater "internationalization" of education, and particularly to the addition of Chinese (1997) and Korean (2002) to the list of foreign languages (English, German, and French) that candidates for university admission can chose from on the nationally administered standardized scholastic aptitude test. Barring the graduates of Asian high schools from national university exams while extending that right only to Western "international" school leavers is clearly an arbitrary abuse of administrative power and a refutation of the very concept of internationalization in education. By internationalization, the Education Ministry appears to mean sharing a classroom and entering into dialogue only with Western students, ignoring Korean and Chinese students, whose presence serves as a reminder of Japan's legacy of colonial rule and wartime military aggression.

As teachers and administrations working in Japan's national universities we feel morally compelled to confront this deeply disturbing problem squarely. In view of our ethnical and professional responsibility, we vigorously protest the Education Ministry's political decision to discriminate against diploma holders from ethnic high schools.

Refusing to be complicit in such discrimination, we demand the following:

1) that the Ministry take the legal steps necessary to assure graduates of ethnic high schools the same rights and privileges to apply for admission to national universities as those to be extended to the graduates of so-called international schools.

2) that if this cannot be done easily, the Ministry publicly authorize each national university to make its own decision about whether to allow ethnic-school graduates to qualify for university admission exams.

March 2, 2003


Initiators:

IZUMI Kaoru (Kyushu University)
KAWASHIMA Shin (Hokkaido University)
KOMAGOME Takeshi (Kyoto University)
MIZUNO Naoki (Kyoto University)
NAKANO Toshio (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
SAKAMOTO Hiroko (Hitotsubashi University)
SECHIYAMA Kaku (University of Tokyo)
SUGIHARA Toru (Osaka University)
TAKAHASHI Tetsuya (University of Tokyo)
TAKEZAWA Yasuko (Kyoto University)
TOMIYAMA Ichiro (Osaka University)
TSURUZONO Yutaka (Kanazawa University)
UKAI Satoshi (Hitotsubashi University)
YASUI Sankichi (Kobe University)
YONEDA Toshihiko (Ochanomizu University)