This year again, Japanese authorities excluded Korean schools from tuition-free high school list, in utter disregard of disapproval and denunciation within the country.

According to the Japanese publication "SHUKAN KINYOBI", an honorary professor from Tokyo University and others celebrities issued a statement criticizing the authorities for excluding Korean schools from education support system and called for its immediate correction.

Personages from different circles including honorary professors from Tokyo University and Hitotsubashi University of Japan, former Vice-Minister for the Ministry of Education and Culture and lawyers held an ad hoc press conference in the parliament at the end of February, and reiterated their concern over the government's exclusion of Korean schools on some unreasonable pretext or other.

They went on to note in the statement that the government continue with their discrimination against Korean children in Japan despite their signboard of "balanced opportunity for education". The statement also gave a detailed account of the case as to why it's the Korean schools only that have been excluded from the education support system since the first introduction of tuition-free high school system in 2010.

Stressing that United Nations and other international organizations are also criticizing such discriminative measures as a "violation of educational rights", the statement demanded that the government review the current situation in which all the education institutions from kindergartens to universities for Korean residents in Japan are being excluded from the education support system to include them in the support list.

A professor from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies denounced the Japanese authorities that they are discriminating Korean schools for no good reason, not even referring to international or domestic laws, which is a disgrace to the so-called "law-governed state".

It is utterly preposterous that only the Korean schools are excluded from the high-school support system and subsidy provision system till now when the then Korean students already have grey hair and it's their children who are learning in the Korean schools, with such an absurd reason that those schools are under the influence of Chongryon – the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.

As was intensively shown by the above facts, the discriminative measures against Korean schools that have persisted through generations constitute a gross violation of not only the international laws but also domestic laws of Japan, which can by no means be justified whatsoever.

The Japanese government should make due note of the stern looks and rightful demands from home and abroad, and immediately rectify all sorts of discrimination against Korean residents in Japan.