Nagano governor visits school for Korean children in Japan

Japan Policy & Politics, June 3, 2002

NAGANO, Japan, May 28 Kyodo

Nagano Gov. Yasuo Tanaka visited a school for children of Korean residents living in Japan on Tuesday, nearly a year after he sparked controversy over his remarks that people critical of his approach to running prefectural administration affairs should go to ''a place like North Korea.''

Officials at the school in Matsumoto in the central Japan prefecture said they extended the invitation to the governor in a bid to help deepen his understanding of different cultures and educational approaches.

Tanaka, a prizewinning novelist, visited classrooms to see elementary and junior high school students.

On June 15 last year, Tanaka made the remark in question at a social gathering for young officials of the prefectural government's branch in Ueda, according to prefectural government officials. They quoted Tanaka as saying, ''People who call decision-making involving prefectural residents as mob rule or populism had better go to a place such as North Korea.''

A local civic group supporting peaceful reunification of the two Koreas later visited the governor and called on him to retract the remark and apologize to those concerned, saying the comment was made ''thoughtlessly by a prefectural governor who has a major influence.''

Tanaka at the time replied, ''I am sorry but I cannot agree to withdraw it or offer an apology.''

''I believe there are quite a few citizens who question the situation of North Korea as a sovereign state,'' he said then.