Education Ministry discriminates against foreign-owned Asian school graduates

The education ministry has announced that graduates of foreign-run schools in Japan will be eligible to take entrance examinations to Japanese universities only when their schools are accredited by one of three school evaluation bodies, two American and one European.

Graduates of 15 foreign-owned schools, including Korean schools, who want to go to Japanese universities, will be asked to first pass the qualifying examination for application to university entrance examinations.

In Japan, international schools and other foreign-run schools have been categorized as "miscellaneous" schools under the School Education Law. This means that students graduating from these schools have been asked to take the "qualifying examination."

Most municipality-run universities and colleges give foreign-run school graduates the same treatment regarding entrance examination, but the government-run universities do not.

The UN Covenants on Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child state that all governments should give foreign children living in their countries opportunity to attend schools.

The Japanese government's new policy, which was revealed on March 7, has come under severe criticism by Korean residents in Japan. They say the measure represents "flagrant discrimination and a human rights violation."

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 1998 recommended to Japan's government that "The Committee is particularly concerned about inequality in accessing institutions of higher education affecting children of Korean origin..."

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations Human Rights Protection Committee has issued a similar recommendation to Japan's government. (end)