Kyoto Gov. Takatoshi Nishiwaki speaks about discriminatory posts against Kyoto International Senior High School, which won the national high school baseball tournament at Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Hyogo Prefecture this summer, in Kyoto’s Kamigyo Ward on Aug. 23, 2024. (Mainichi/Satoshi Kubo)
KYOTO — The Kyoto Prefectural Government has asked the local legal affairs bureau and online forum providers to remove discriminatory posts against a private high school with Korean roots that won the national high school baseball tournament.
Kyoto Gov. Takatoshi Nishiwaki revealed on Aug. 23 that there were several posts on online bulletin boards and X (formerly Twitter) discriminating against Kyoto International Senior High School, the winner of this summer’s baseball tourney at Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Hyogo Prefecture.
The Kyoto-based high school was founded in 1947 as Kyoto Chosen Jr. High School for Korean children in Japan, and a school song in Korean was played when it clinched its first victory at the Koshien championship on Aug. 23.
According to the prefectural government, it asked the Kyoto District Legal Affairs Bureau and online forum providers to delete by Aug. 23 four discriminatory comments posted on or after Aug. 17. Three of those posts have apparently already been removed.
When Kyoto International advanced to semifinals in the 2021 summer Koshien tourney, many discriminatory posts were similarly posted on online bulletin boards and elsewhere, prompting the prefectural government to seek their removal.
Gov. Nishiwaki said, “There must not be discriminatory posts, and I urge people to stop them.”
In 1958, a little over a decade after the school’s establishment, it was renamed Kyoto Kankoku Academy, and its school status was approved by the South Korean government. It was granted official “school” status under Japan’s School Education Act in 2003.
(Japanese original by Satoshi Kubo, Kyoto Bureau)
AloJapan.com