On October 1, 2014, ZENKYO sent Mr. Shozo KANISAWA and Hisashi NAKAMURA, both its National Executive Committee members to South Korea and had a meeting with the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU). They met with Mr. Kim jeong hun , KTU President, and exchanged views on education in Japan and South Korea.

Last year, the Government of South Korea withdrew the recognition of the KTU as workers’ union.  The South Korean fought a court struggle and won it in September this year and got back the recognition.
 
While Abe Government is pushing ahead with its “Education Renaissance” policy, in South Korea, Park Geun-hye Government, in contradiction to her public promise, is making negative changes in education: 1) imposition of specific history textbooks as “official” textbooks; 2) reducing the jurisdiction of the chairpersons of local education boards; 3) cutting state education budget to the detriment of municipalities: some municipalities providing free childcare and free meals to young children from 3 to 5 years of age have seen their budgets reduced markedly; 4) linking teachers’ salary scales with teacher appraisal system.

The meeting between the two unions demonstrated that education in their respective countries is facing common problems.  This made them convinced of the need for being united and struggling together against their common enemies.