KITAKYUSHU (Kyodo) Two colleges, one in Fukuoka Prefecture and the other in Tokyo, have stopped requiring non-Japanese applicants to submit documents showing they are legal residents following complaints that the practice is discriminatory, school officials said Thursday.
An official at Kyushu Dental College in Kitakyushu said, "We tried to check if applicants had overstayed (their visas), but we can confirm it through documents from their high schools.
"Since we do not require residence certificates for Japanese applicants, we accept the claim that the previous practice was discriminatory," the official said.
The dental college made the decision after a South Korean resident of Japan, who lives in Osaka, complained to the college on Feb. 6 that the requirement was discriminatory. After consulting with the education ministry, the college eliminated the requirement the following day.
Showa University in Tokyo received a similar complaint in February and eliminated the requirement, it said.