Serious misuse of public funds has been uncovered involving a Chosen Gakko in Gifu Prefecture.
Chosen Gakko are North Korea–affiliated schools in Japan that operate under the influence of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chosen Soren). They are known to provide an education that glorifies and promotes North Korea’s dictatorship.
For years, Gifu Chosen Elementary and Junior High School received subsidies from municipalities outside the city where it is located, despite having no students from those areas.
It has also emerged that the school may have submitted overlapping subsidy applications to multiple municipalities.
No More Blank Checks
The fact that a North Korea–affiliated school could misuse public funds, in what amounts to near-fraud, without being checked for so long is deeply troubling.
Some left-leaning groups and lawmakers have long pressed for public support for these North Korea-affiliated schools. Local governments, reluctant to invite controversy, often appear to have let the subsidies continue by sheer inertia.
Photo taken at Tokyo Chosen Junior and Senior High School, one of 64 Chosen Gakko remaining in Japan. (©Public Domain)
In fiscal 2023 alone, 94 prefectures, cities, wards, towns, and villages across Japan disbursed just under ¥200 million, or about $1.26 million, in subsidies to North Korea-affiliated schools.
The education ministry should conduct a fresh investigation and give local governments firm guidance.
The Gifu Scandal
Gifu Chosen Elementary and Junior High School effectively shut down this fiscal year due to enrollment shortages.
Yet Mizuho City, Ginan Town, and Kasamatsu Town in the same prefecture continued providing the school with between ¥10,000 (about $65) and ¥20,000 a year for at least seven years, even though none of the three municipalities had any students attending the school.
Moreover, Gifu Chosen Academy, the institutional corporation that operates the school, applied in fiscal 2023 for subsidies from the cities of Gifu, Ogaki, and Hashima for teaching materials and facility maintenance.
In total, it received about ¥430,000, or $2,700, even though the actual costs came to only about ¥340,000. There are suspicions that the same receipts were reused in overlapping applications, and the three cities are now investigating the matter.
It was also discovered that Gifu City and the other municipalities had failed to establish clear rules in their subsidy guidelines barring duplicate applications.
Both problems surfaced only after a prefectural city council member who had questioned the use of public funds filed information disclosure requests.
Better Spent Elsewhere
As early as 2016, the education ministry issued a notice urging local governments to carefully assess whether subsidies to North Korea-affiliated schools were appropriate.
Above all, mayors, local assembly members, and other officials involved should stop directing public funds toward institutions that glorify Pyongyang, and instead consider how that money could better support efforts to raise awareness of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.
The abductions issue is a far more urgent and deserving cause that should be prioritized.
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Author: The Editorial Board, The Sankei Shimbun
(Read this article in Japanese)
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