Hate speech against Koreans still active in Japan

A group of Japanese far-right activists holds an anti-Korean demonstration in Kyoto, March 9, to commemorate its first rally at an elementary school in the city in 2009. / Yonhap

By Park Ji-won

A group of Japanese far-right activists staged an anti-Korean demonstration in Kyoto, March 9, to commemorate its first rally held at a local Korean school tied to North Korea in the same city in 2009.

They belonged to an ultranationalist group called Zaitokukai which held three demonstrations near the school back then, scaring young students with discriminatory remarks and violence.

Japan enacted an anti-hate speech law in May 2016. Since then, the number of racially-biased protests has decreased and municipal governments also started to pass ordinances banning hate speech.

But such actss against ethnic Koreans living in Japan, or "Zainichis," resurfaces whenever negative North Korea-related issues emerge.

The first generation of these Koreans went to Japan during the latter's colonial occupation of Korea. After Japan's defeat in World War II, Koreans were urged to choose an ideological side between South and North Korea. Many took South Korean or Japanese nationality while 30,181, as of June 2018, still lived in Japan without any official nationality, according to Japan's Justice Ministry data.

These stateless people chose to live as such until the day Korean unification comes. Most, having suffered poverty and discrimination in the past, lean toward North Korea because of support from Pyeongyang to set up schools. These schools are mostly run by the pro-North General Association of Korean Residents, or Chongryon.

The internet has made it easier for extremists to gather. The anti-Korean extremist movement grew after the emergence of Shinzo Abe's conservative administration, and following former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il admitting in 2002 to the abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s.

Participants answer questions at a book release event in Seoul, March 16, on anti-Korean demonstrations by Japan's ultranationalists and hate crime issues. From left are Nakamura Il-song, a journalist and author of the book "Korean School Raid in Kyoto"; Jung Mi-young, a translator; and Toyofuku Seiji, an attorney for a Korean school. / Courtesy of Mongdang

What happened in the Korean school?

Il-song Nakamura, a journalist, who traced what happened to the Korean school and told the story in a book recalled that Japanese police didn't protect the students during the three hate protests by far-right groups.

"Japanese police didn't stop those protesters. Rather, the police simply overlooked the situation and de facto protecting the extremists," he said during a release event for his book in Seoul, March. 16.

"When I complained about the situation, a police officer said to me that I should make the law (to get protection) as there is no law for police to follow."

The discriminatory remarks against the pupils inside the school included "The school is an education organization to foster North Korean spies," "The school occupied the land by raping and beating women during the war when there were no (Japanese) men in the town," and "Kill those Chosenjin at the health center," according to Nakamura. "Chosenjin" is a derogatory way of referring to people from the Korean Peninsula.

Toyofuku Seiji, a Japanese lawyer who defended the school in the lawsuits, said that Japanese police took a de facto "racist" move to let people make defamatory remarks against Zainichis or other minorities.

"Police would stop somebody from being (physically) beaten. Firefighters would extinguish a fire. However, police didn't stop a literal crime and defamatory remarks (against the students). I am considering filing a lawsuit against the police (for negligence of duty.)"

Pak Jong-im, then chief of the school's mothers' group, explained that she felt fear about the violent situation as it was acted out by ordinary citizens, not criminal gangs.

"I felt pure fear. The whole society looked different to me after what happened. I thought everybody in the street seems to have an intention to eliminate us. I thought that our peaceful and happy place was taken away."

Including herself, she said many students, their instructors and parents who were at the scene suffered from stress disorders for years; some physically shaking after seeing a random person in similar clothes to the protesters and scared stiff whenever hearing a voice from a loudspeaker.

The school decided to file a lawsuit against the extremists. In December 2013, a Japanese court made a historic ruling, ordering Zaitokukai to pay $120,000 in damages to the elementary school for staging demonstrations using racist slogans.

'Abe wins popularity by racism'

The school won the suit and made known the history of racism in Japan. But, according to Nakamura's book, even though an anti-hate speech law was made in response to the attack, there are still verbal abuses enacted against Koreans as the anti-hate speech law does not have a penalty for breaking it.

When asked about the continuing hate speech against the Korean residents, Nakamura found it serious largely because the Japanese government shows the way in which its treats minorities ― which is apparent racism.

"It is a serious situation. Zaitokukai was organized when Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan took power in 2006. Abe is the only person who apparently used racism and exclusivism to grab the top seat. And such a person has about a 40 percent approval rating now."

Toyofuku pointed out Japan is becoming more right-wing and has urged the country to accept the recommendation of the U.N. and revise its anti-hate speech law to issue real penalties for hate crimes.

"The Japanese government and the ruling party are ignoring the U.N.'s recommendation. When it comes to the law on human rights, it is not desirable. The anti-hate speech law is still in its infancy. It only stipulates that there is hate speech in society and let's do our best to eliminate it."

Toyofuku stressed the importance of the fight against discrimination saying, "I think a society where minorities are happy is good for the Japanese as well. I hope a day would come when I don't need to take Korean school-related jobs."

Nakamura also emphasized that it is the majority's privilege to ignore the fight against discrimination. "There is no way for minorities but to fight."

He also asked people to pay attention to the tuition waiver issue of the Korean school to tackle the discrimination.

"The school mainly fought for two things in the lawsuits; a society without hate crimes and the right to have minority (Korean) education. The latter didn't get much attention though." He pointed out the tuition issue became another source of discrimination for Zainichi Koreans.

Then ruling Democratic Party of Japan came up with an initiative to launch a tuition waiver program for all high school-level educational organizations in 2010 except the ethnic Korean schools. Japan's district courts continue to make rulings in favor of the Japanese government's decision.

On March 5, the U.N.'s Convention on the Rights of the Child recommended Japan to "review the standards to facilitate the extension of the tuition waiver program to Korean schools and ensure that access to university and college entrance examinations is non-discriminatory."

South Korea's Lawyers for a Democratic Society also criticized Japan for the non-inclusion of Korean schools in the tuition wavier program after the Fukuoka District court's recent decision rejecting the tuition wavier for Korean schools in the city.

"Excluding Korean schools from the tuition waiver is a violation of education rights and a stereotype of the Japanese people's biased notion toward Korean schools and Zainichi Korean society," the lawyers' group said in a statement.

"The Japanese government's discrimination is de facto threatening the life of Zainichi Koreans including students of Korean schools."

Urging people to join their fight on the tuition issue, Pak said it is important to speak up to tackle the discrimination against minorities.

"I didn't expect that the hate-speech law would be made. It is a miracle. If we didn't speak, there would be no law. I will continue to shout for change. We will fight the discrimination. It will be us who foster the law."

Kim Rika, a participant of the event and a third-generation Korean resident in Japan, said "Including myself, Zainichi Koreans didn't pay much attention to the victims of the hate crimes in Kyoto. In that sense, I felt that I was an accomplice."

"When the Aum Shinrikyo cult's sarin gas attack occurred and a man killed 19 handicapped people at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en, people were interested in the brutality of the perpetrator and didn't notice the victims. But if we keep listening to victims, we could learn who is being discriminated against in society and the structure of the discrimination."