The Dark Side of Japan

Ethnic North Koreans in Japan

In present day Japan, there are 2 major branches of ethnic Korean (Zainichi Koreans and for the accuracy of the terminology we will use Zainichi Koreans instead of ethnic Koreans) organizations which are Chongryon and Mindan. 

Zainichi is translated as residing in Japan.

Chongryon stands for The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.

This organization has a close tie with North Korea and it functions as de facto embassy, therefore they’ve been enjoying diplomatic immunity. However, as the tension between North Korea and Japan intensified, more pressure to Chongryon from the society was raised. North Korea has been creating so many different problems with Japan like abducting Japanese nationals and launching of missiles and etc.

Chongryon members are those who have identified themselves as Joseon nationals instead of Japanese or South Korean.

Joseon national is now considered as nationality of North Korea, nevertheless, to be specific it is the old Korean nationality before the division of the Korean Peninsula occurred. 

Roughly about 600,000 Zainichi Koreans are living in Japan and only about 25 % of them retained their nationality as Joseon.

Zainichi Koreans in Japan are mostly geographically from southern part of the Korean peninsula, thus it is understandable that the South Korean nationals of Zainichi Koreans out number Zainichi Koreans with Joseon nationality.

It’s close tie to North Korea and allegiance to the North Korean ideology and their opposition of integrating into Japanese society are controversial and it actually widens the gap between them and Mindan Koreans. 

Chongryon approach of ethnic education in Japan is the revitalization of Korean identity and culture rather than integration into the Japanese society. 

Also 5 of senior Chongryon members are now Supreme People’s Assembly in North Korea. Koreans who have North Korean educational background from Japan are considered as elites in North Korea.

In 1952 the North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung called Zainichi Koreans who supported the ideology of North Korea to fight for the socialist reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

Chongryon operates 140 ethnic schools and they are partially funded by North Korean government in Japan including everything from Kindergarten to university. There are only 12 high schools with enrollment of about 2000 students. They teach strong pro- North Korean ideology and allegiance to Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il and etc. Teachers are to wear Korean traditional clothes and students are discouraged from speaking Japanese in their schools even though at home they speak Japanese. School serves Korean traditional food, and many female students learn the form of Korean dance, and in the final year of their high school they visit North Korea during summer vacation.

Their approach has been heavily criticized from Mindan Zainichi students, parents, and Japanese public. Within Zainichi Koreans many of them hesitate to send their kids to Chongryon affiliated schools and rather send them to regular Japanese public schools. There are only about 10,000 students overall enrolled in such ethnic schools.

Such schools are not considered as regular schools in Japan but miscellaneous schools therefore those students who’ve been to this type of education, even after graduating their high school will be required to take a separate exam to pass an exam of qualification for entrance to colleges. Even with the extra qualification, the decision is dependent on each schools and public schools are often reluctant to approve this extra qualification. 

Just briefly introducing such North Koreans in Japan, you can see hard lives that they face and I have written in my earlier article that such identity is just stupid. The identity does nothing more than cause problems for those people. I would really recommend this minority group in Japan to stop your old devotion to your pathetic identity, look at yourself, confront with reality. Your dream of sucking Kim Jong-Il or whoever's dick won't come true. You will live in Japan because you chose to be a North Korean when you had the opportunity to be a South Korean and get the hell out of Japan.