The Osaka District Court ruled Friday that the Japanese government should retract its decision to deny high school tuition subsidies to a Korean school historically related to Pyongyang, in the first ruling from among a number of similar lawsuits to approve the eligibility of such schools.
The court found the government's exclusion of Osaka Korean High School from its free tuition high school education program to be illegal. The exclusion had been based on political issues, such as North Korea's past abductions of Japanese citizens.
The school in Osaka is one of a number of Japanese government-authorized academic institutes known as Chosen Gakko, which are historically linked to groups representing pro-Pyongyang Korean residents within Japan such as the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. South Korean residents in Japan and Japanese nationals also attend Chosen Gakko schools.