Churches of Korea and Japan decided to take actions in concert on racial discrimination against immigrants in Korea and hate speech against Korean residents in Japan.
The 17th Korea - Japan International Symposium on human rights and immigration policy was conducted from October 6th through the 10th in cooperation with the Justice and Peace Committee (Chairperson Huh, Won Bae) of the NCCK and the NCCJ at Aster Plaza in Hiroshima, Japan. The theme of this symposium was “Responsibility for the Future: The Reconciliation and Peace of East Asia.” Both Korea and Japan churches had very deep discussions on this subject through keynote lectures and presentations for three days.
There were two key agendas which were discussed at this symposium.The first agenda was reconciliation and peace in East Asia. The second was how to cooperate together against the discrimination and hate speeches toward immigrants and Korean residents in Japan that occur in both countries.
Japan has made a stronger rightward shift recently by amending the pacific constitution and showing actions that exercise the “right of collective self-defense.” The participants of the symposium agreed that this threatens the reconciliation and peace of East Asia, and that Japan must stop distorting the history and stop dreaming of colonization of the past. They had also agreed that the ROK-US-Japan joint military training aiming at China should be stopped immediately.
The hate speech phenomenon happening in Japan is a phenomenon where far-right organizations make absurd remarks to Korean residents in Japan such as, “Kill any Korean even good or bad; it’s okay to rape Korean women; it will not be the Nanjing Massacre, but we will have the Tsuruhashi Massacre.” This has become a social problem in Japanese society which leads to discrimination against Korean residents. Also in Korea the situation is very serious where immigrants are discriminated against and receive the pain of prejudice because of their skin color and different language. According to those problems they decided to act together to enact an anti-discrimination Law by accepting the revised recommendations of the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Therefore, Christians of Korea, Japan, and the Churches of Korean residents in Japan pledge to continue to practice the details below:
1. On behalf of reconciliation and peace in Northeast Asia, we stand against history distortions, territorial disputes, and military buildup. We urge both governments to work for justice, peace, and life, and we will take on the roles of watchmen.
2. We urge the government to enact "laws prohibiting racism" and guarantee the rights of foreign residents and social minorities.
3. We will build and promote a network to share the challenges and achievements of each other to form a church and society that save each other transcending colonialism and racism.
4. The Korea / Japan / Korean Residents in Japan Church will interact with each other and promote a program to widen peace education, the historical education, and human rights education.
5. We will recognize the preservation of the rights of foreign residents as our mission and will cooperate with other Asian churches and World churches to fulfill it.
6. We pledge to continue the cooperation of Korea and Japan and the solidarity of Christians in Japan in order to cope with this mission, and are going to hold the 18th International Symposium in Korea in 2016.
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