Japanese court orders anti-Korean extremists to pay compensation

A district court in Japan on Friday ordered an anti-Korean extremist group to pay 2.31 million yen ($19,389) in compensation for attacking teachers who supported Korean schools in Tokushima.

According the Tokushima District Court, eight members of the group ― named Zaitokukai ― stormed into the office of a teachers union in Japan’s southern region in 2010.

The members physically attacked the unionized workers for offering financial support to schools for ethnic Korean children, established by a major ethnic Korean organization that has close ties to North Korea.

The ultra-nationalist group members also verbally abused some of the female teachers, calling them “traitors” among other things.

The group, which claims it has about 15,000 members, was founded in 2006 to “eliminate privileges” extended to noncitizen residents in Japan, mostly ethnic Koreans who are descendants of laborers from the Korean Peninsula before and during the World War II.

The group has been criticized for its use of racist and hateful remarks against ethnic minorities. The members have used terms such as “cockroaches” and “criminals” while referring to ethnic Koreans living in Japan, and called for them to be killed.

Last year, the Kyoto District Court ordered the group’s members to pay 12 million yen ($120,000) to a Korean school in the city for disturbing classes and attacking children by holding anti-Korean rallies outside the property.

Also last year, Japan’s National Police Agency placed the group on its watch list for the members’ continued use of hate speech against ethnic Koreans in the country.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)