The education ministry on Feb. 20 revised an ordinance to exclude so-called Korean high schools or pro-North Korea high schools from the government's tuition-waiver program. This change will cause various problems.
First of all, the revision violates the principle of an education program designed to ensure that all high school students in Japan receive an education regardless of the financial condition of their families. Excluding children attending Korean high schools also violates the principle of equality under the law as stipulated by Article 14 of the Constitution.
The government will have difficulty justifying the decision as not discriminatory to students of Korean high schools because the tuition-waiver program covers so-called international schools and schools with close ties to China and South Korea as well.