An emergency meeting of people in Hyogo Prefecture took place in Kobe City of Japan on March 1 to oppose the exclusion of Korean schools from the tuition-waiver program for senior high schools, and defend the right to national education.

A reporter and speakers said that they could no longer overlook the Japanese authorities' discrimination-oriented policy of excluding Korean schools from the tuition-waiver program.

They would take action together with the Koreans in Japan and the Japanese people for the provision of the right to national education, the sacred right of the Koreans in Japan.

Letters of request forwarded to the prime minister and the minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan were read out at the meeting.

On the same day, an emergency unity action calling for the immediate application of the tuition-waiver program to Korean schools took place at Korean senior high school in Hiroshima.

On Feb. 23 the "Network Aichi calling for the application of tuition-wavier program to Korean schools without discrimination" and Aichi Korean school held a joint press conference in the Aichi Prefectural Office.

Statements were issued at the press conference.

The Japanese government is attempting to link the education of the Korean students in Japan with the political and diplomatic problem between the DPRK and Japan, the statements said, adding: This amounts to national discrimination which is banned in Japan's constitution, the International Convention on Human Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Treaty on the Rights of Child.

The present situation proves that the Japanese government is still hostile to Japan-residing Koreans who fell victim to the Japanese colonial domination in the past, and their children, the statements said, calling for the immediate application of tuition-waiver program to Korean schools.