LETTER FROM TOKYO
In the land of the rising sun, every school has its coat of arms, flag and anthem, praising the charm of the seasons, even if it does not extol educational values. Sometimes these texts provoke undesirable reactions, such as that of the Kyoto International Institute, 450 kilometres from Tokyo. For the local nationalist fringe, its words make the mistake of being in Korean and of referring to the “East Sea” to refer to the stretch of sea that separates the peninsula from the archipelago. The Japanese maintain that the term “Sea of Japan” should be used.
The issue erupted after the team’s victory in the final of the high school baseball tournament, the “koshien”, against the Kanto Daiichi team in Tokyo on August 23, after an impressive match that ended with a score of 2 to 1. The result provoked an avalanche of attacks on social networks with calls for “Kyoto International High School’s expulsion from the High School Baseball Federation” or the complaint of a “Shame on Kyoto.”
The international high school is the successor to Kyoto Chosen, founded in 1947 to accommodate the children of Korean expatriates. “Chosen” is the old name for Korea. In the 1990s, faced with financial difficulties and a drop in student numbers, the school decided to integrate into the Japanese education system. Supported by the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Union of Korean Residents in Japan (Mindan), in 2003 it obtained approval from the Ministry of Education and changed its name to become “Kyoto International High School.” Now, 70% of its 159 students are Japanese.
However, in Japan, the estimated 600,000 Koreans are many immigrants fleeing poverty or forced by the Japanese militarist regime during colonization (1910-1945), and everything Korean remains the target of rampant racism.
“Koreans, hang!”
Zaitokukai, an association fighting against the special privileges of Koreans in Japan, founded in 2006 by nationalist Makoto Sakurai, distinguished itself in the 2010s by organizing demonstrations at the entrance to Tokyo’s Shin-Okubo district, known for hosting a large Korean population. Slogans such as “Kill the Koreans!” EITHER “Koreans, hang! Drink poison! Die!”
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, close to the Liberal Democratic Party and re-elected in July for a third term, refused, as she has done every year since she took over the leadership of the metropolis in 2016, on 1Ahem September, to pay tribute to the Koreans – estimated at between 2,900 and 6,600 – massacred in the days following the September 1 earthquake.Ahem September 1923. The day after the tragedy that left 105,000 dead in Tokyo and its region, rumors spread that Korean immigrants had poisoned wells, started fires and provoked riots.
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