Japanese, Koeran- Japanese, Korean high school students jointly discussed what can we do to eradicate “hate speech”: community based exchange, peace education and learning for 20 years

抄録

Many Korean residents of Kawasaki city live in Japan due to historical circumstances. On the basis of the regional movement in the Sakuramoto area of Kawasaki which is a Korean community, citizen intercultural exchange began with Bucheon city in South Korea in 1991. Both cities have signed a friendship city agreement in a high school student exchange project “Kawasaki-Bucheon High School Student Forum HANA” began in 2000.

HANA positively picked up such topics as history, war/peace, discrimination, and human rights, and discussed them at the forum. The 34th exchange meeting on 23- 27 December 2016 was held in Kawasaki on the theme of “hate speech” High school students in both cities hold preparatory meetings two or three times each month and have real-time contact via LINE and Instagram. They deepen problem awareness through pre-learning and, with the support of the OB/OG (graduates) network, they noticed that we could be both discriminated against and discriminating, and they organized a program to look back on discriminated and discriminating issues in their daily lives.

In the production of the forum, they did fieldwork and held discussions and visited the Kawasaki Peace Museum. They came to realize the seriousness of the damage of hate speech and the importance of citizens’ activities. They noticed complex causes such as history, media, and education, and learned that various efforts are being promoted not only in Japan and Korea but in the whole world, and they jointly discussed what we can do.

Peace education and learning are exhausting to human education. A virtuous cycle is born that OB/OG while living and working in the community support the activities of HANA through their own experience and knowledge.