Though born and raised in Japan, students from Korea University are being denied government payments designed to help citizens facing financial difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the program, each student can receive up to 200,000 yen ($1,900) to tide them over.

But Korea University students are not eligible. The decision to exclude them is the latest in a long series of slights against ethnic Koreans who have repeatedly been denied government benefits related to education.

“We should have the equal right to an education,” a Korea University student said. “If the objective of the government payments was to allow for the continuation of learning, I hope the government will make us eligible.”

Established in 1956, Korea University is located in Kodaira, western Tokyo. The Tokyo metropolitan government approved it as a “miscellaneous school” under the School Education Law.

About 600 students would normally be studying at the university, where all students live in dorms. The students hold various citizenships, including those of South Korea and Japan.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has drastically altered life on campus. All students were instructed to return home after the school year ended in March. Online classes have been held since then.

The only students still living in the dorms are those belonging to university sports teams practicing for upcoming competitions.

One of them, a second-year student in the political science and economics faculty, also belongs to the soccer team, and has been practicing on the university's Kodaira field to prepare for an August tournament.

Though his parents pay for his tuition and dorm expenses, the student worked part-time to buy books and food. But the pandemic led his work hours to be reduced and now he is nearly broke.

Born in Osaka, he attended schools for ethnic Koreans in Saitama and Tokyo from elementary school through senior high. During a soccer game in senior high school, a player on the opposing team called him “missile” and he also was targeted with racial slurs while commuting to school.

He aspires to become a teacher in the hope of helping to create a society that embraces diversity.

After the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved the special outlay for financially struggling university students in May, the student said he thought "not again" when he learned that Korea University students would not be eligible.

The payment program is designed for students in university, graduate school, junior college, specialized occupational schools and even Japanese campuses of foreign institutions, according to the education ministry.

But the ministry ruled students at Korea University were ineligible because it said it could not directly confirm that the university was an institution of higher learning.

Korea University officials argue that their institution has already been legally recognized as an institution of higher learning under the Japanese legal system because the ministry itself has recognized that its graduates are certified to enter Japanese graduate schools.

Other schools for children who are ethnic Koreans have also been removed from government programs in the past.

When the Democratic Party of Japan was in control of the government, it began a program to make senior high school tuition-free from fiscal 2010. But it put off having the program apply to senior high schools for ethnic Koreans.

When Abe began his second stint as prime minister late in 2012, his administration decided such schools were not eligible for the tuition-free program.

In October 2019, the Abe administration began paying for early education and day care programs, but once again kindergartens affiliated with schools for ethnic Koreans were ruled outside of the program.

A Korea University official pointed out the huge difference in the economic burden on parents since Japanese families do not have to pay anything if their children attend kindergarten and schools from the elementary to secondary levels. However, families that send their children to schools for ethnic Koreans have to pay tuition every step along the way.

Numerous Korea University students now fear that the financial fallout from the pandemic on their families could make it difficult to continue with their studies.

A senior studying in the foreign languages faculty has been helping out at a Korean barbecue restaurant that the student's family runs. But business has been slow, even in July, and the restaurant's financial condition is not good.

Korea University plans to resume face-to-face classes from September, but the student is worried about the ability to pay the tuition and other expenses.