'In here you only learn about the good things': Inside a North Korean school

Nagoya: On a warm Sunday morning in mid-October, hundreds of members of the tight-knit Korean community in the Japanese city of Nagoya gathered on the grounds of the local school for a day of celebration and reunion.

From grandparents to toddlers, they were there for the opening day of the Aichi Korean Middle and High School’s new classroom block, which has been funded by the school and through donations without government support.

In the school’s auditorium, students performed a pageant of colourful traditional Korean dances and songs to an audience of delighted parents and relatives. Outside, the forecourt had been transformed into a mini-festival, where food stalls dished up bibimbap and bulgogi alongside Korean soft drinks for a party that would continue long into the afternoon.

For this community, the new school building is a triumph of the endurance of Korean ethnic education in Japan, which is fighting for survival in the face of government funding cuts, dwindling enrolments and school closures across the country.

But a key factor in their existential crisis was also prominently and proudly on display.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/in-japan-pro-north-korean-schools-fight-for-survival-as-geopolitical-tensions-heighten-20241023-p5kkv3.html

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