They held that the tuition aid program should be applied to the Korean schools without discrimination to meet the need of the international community and ensure future of Japan.

They urged the government to make sure that everybody is given an opportunity of learning on an equal basis.

Ha Su Gwang, chairman of the Chiba Prefectural Headquarters of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), and other officials of Chongryon and those concerned of the Korean schools in Chiba and Hiroshima and representatives of Japanese civic bodies also visited the ministry to lodge a protest with it on the same day.

Conveying to the ministry the paper containing signatures of over 33,300 Korean residents and Japanese citizens in Chiba, Hiroshima, Kochi, Tokushima and Ehime prefectures, they declared that it represents the demand for lifting a discriminating measure against the Korean schools.

Recalling that the Koreans in Japan are also paying taxes just as the Japanese citizens do, they blasted the Japanese government for excluding the Korean schools from the tuition aid program.

That day the vice-chairman of the Hyogo Prefectural Headquarters of Chongryon and the director of the Hyogo Prefectural People's Council for the Japan-DPRK Friendship met with the vice secretary- general of the Democratic Party of Japan.

Reminding him that more than 50,000 Korean residents and Japanese citizens in Hyogo Prefecture participated in the signature campaign, they reiterated their will to continue struggling for getting the discriminatory policy towards the Korean schools retracted.