
Many Japanese children refuse to go to school - lnguyen
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-50693777
======
oddity
If you're a kid and do the cost/benefit analysis, going to school looks like a
dumb decision and a huge opportunity cost for time that could otherwise be
used for things with known reward (playing). Bullying, exams, homework, sleep
disruption, etc is all cost.

What does the _student_ believe they get they out of it? The pathway from
school to job is nebulous to young kids who don't yet need money to live. As
kids get older and gain knowledge but not respect or autonomy, the school to
job pathway looks more and more arbitrary and unnecessary (the common question
of "But when am I actually going to use this?" I remember hearing often in
school).

Maybe there's the benefit of finding friends, but now they have the internet
from a young age, and I think the social justification has evaporated. Why
bother forming friend circles with people you must talk to, when you can find
friend circles from a larger pool with people you want to talk to?

For many (most?) kids, it doesn't seem like they, individually, have a reason
to go to school. Instead, their parents have a reason and the kids' only
reason is to not anger their parents.

~~~
satori99
> "But when am I actually going to use this?"

I was as guilty of this as anyone in my school days, and yet not a single
teacher ever pointed out to me that I was at school to learn _how to learn_ ,
so in a sense the subject matter was irrelevant.

~~~
barry-cotter
That means school was irrelevant. The evidence for transfer of learning is
weak to the point of non-existence[1].

Even if transfer learning did exist that’s not the reason for school that any
substantial portion of people believe in. If we look at the institutional
history of school teaching nationalism is a much easier sell as to the purpose
of school.

[1] “Besides just plain forgetting, people commonly fail to marshal what they
know effectively in situations outside the classroom or in other classes in
different disciplines. The bridge from school to beyond or from this subject
to that other is a bridge too far.”

“Salomon, Gavriel, and David Perkins. 1989. “Rocky Roads to Transfer:
Rethinking Mechanism of a Neglected Phenomenon.” Educational Psychologist 24
(2): 113–42.

~~~
WilliamEdward
> The evidence for transfer learning is weak to the point of non-existence.

Citation needed. But transfer learning is a term specific to the ML field
anyway, so I'm not sure why you used it.

> teaching nationalism is a much easier sell as to the purpose of school

I don't think most people believe this is the purpose of school, not even
nationalists.

~~~
paganel
Nationalists most certainly believe that, for example every small change to
our children’s history books that can be seen as not conforming to our
glorious past (or what the nationalists see as our “glorious past”) is seen by
our local nationalists (I live in a Eastern Europe) as potentially the end of
the world as we know it. Europe can be interesting like that, good thing that
we (almost) stopped killing each other after WW2 over stupid things like
imaginary lines drawn on soil.

~~~
growlist
> stupid things like imaginary lines drawn on soil.

So let's erase all borders and see how we get on.

Orwell: 'men can only be highly civilized while other men, inevitably less
civilized, are there to guard and feed them.'

~~~
paganel
Actually we get on quite well in Europe, thank you very much. I suggest you
take a car-ride through Northern France, close to Verdun, if those numberless
WW1 cemeteries don’t change your mind I don’t know what else will.

~~~
growlist
> Actually we get on quite well in Europe, thank you very much. I suggest you
> take a car-ride through Northern France, close to Verdun, if those
> numberless WW1 cemeteries don’t change your mind I don’t know what else
> will.

That'll be the same France that has nuclear weapons?

~~~
paganel
I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt as per this website’s rules but
looking at your recent post history I can see that you’re a Brexit supporter
so I’ll leave it at that, there’s no benefit in arguing. But for the life of
me I cannot understand why people like you, who are against an open society,
choose to spend your time on the Internet, i.e. the number one “result” (so to
speak) of the post-WW2 open society. In other words, if you are a
provincialist why do people like you choose to spend their time in discussing
with foreigners on a borderless thing like the Internet?

------
emanuer
My 9 years old son has refused to go to his public Tokyo school for two years
now. I am from a German speaking country and the idea of a child not to attend
school is absolutely unimaginable. His mother (Japanese) has always insisted
that this is not uncommon in Japan. His head-teachers also insured me that
this is not uncommon. As I am not living in Japan I had to accept these
circumstances.

I was somewhat calmed by the knowledge that the school provided counseling and
other dedicated programs for the development of my son. I thought the
counselors cared quite well for him, when I was allowed to witness sessions.

When I took my son to my home country for two months he transformed. He was
quiet and reclusive in the first weeks, but turned into a much more playful,
outspoken and socially interested young boy towards the end.

Since then I discovered that his mother has been hiding a worsening mental
illness from me. This affected my son greatly, he felt the need to care for
her. He even has hundreds of YouTube videos in his history explaining children
of what to do when your parent is mentally unwell — discovering this really
broke my heart.

Per my request, my son was taken into the custody of the Japanese child
protective services 3 months ago and I am currently in Japan fighting for sole
custody of him.

My tale is a single data point, but I have come to believe the many stories of
mental problems of Japanese children and young adults are not solely
attributable to the pressures of society. I rather believe that mental health
problems being a taboo in Japan may be the root of many problems.

Per my understanding it is incredibly shameful to admit to mental health
problems and doing so brings serious ramifications.

So, if my hypothesis is correct, parents in Japan are more likely to go
untreated and their children suffer the effects, perpetuating the cycle.

In our case, the school—very subtly—tried to inform me about their worries
concerning his mothers mental health problems without ever speaking about it
directly. They only spoke freely when a court appointed expert demanded them
to.

My son has an entire network of child psychologist, youth counselors and also
me waiting for him in my home country, who will all encourage him to treat
mental health like physical health; Everyone gets sick sometimes. For the body
you take antibiotics, for the mind you take time of to become aware of what is
happening. You seek professional help in both situations and being depressed,
is a shameful as getting the flu, not at all.

~~~
hrktb
> So, if my hypothesis is correct, parents in Japan are more likely to go
> untreated

You are right that people don’t often admit mental illness in public or to
people they don’t trust.

That’s not that different from western countries in my experience, there is a
stigma associated to even depression. Perhaps agoraphobia would be the line
where people just nod and ask for details, otherwise they tend to draw a line
and flag you as “crazy” or lazy if they have no prior experience or exposure
to mental illness.

The worst part would be from a career perspective, where your employer getting
that info would be at best neutral, at worst cost you opportunities you would
have no chance to prove you missed because of discrimination.

Now, Japanese people get treated. It’s not difficult to get a prescription,
and you don’t need to shout on the roofs your getting treatment. I had a
number of co-workers that were diagnosed with depression and were under
treatment for a few years already. Close friends knew it, otherwise it was no
one’s business.

Like for everything, the first step is to recognize you need help, and that’s
a step a lot of adults fear to take.

~~~
watwut
Only few mental health issues can be solved just like that by prescription.
Many if not most are lifetime issues with considerable consequences on
everyone around.

~~~
hrktb
Yes.

Luckily work environnement is usually not that chalenging, and very
predictible. It helps to avoid situations that could be triggering, and
medication can also mitigate the handicaping parts, even if it doesn’t solve
the root issues.

------
andreygrehov
When I was a kid and lived in Ukraine (my home country), I went to a home
school. Tutoring happened at a teacher's home. Each class was 4-6 people max.
Such were the rules. They hired teachers from the same neighborhood so that
kids could easily walk from one teacher's place to another. Sometimes we had
to take a bus. It was amazing. Obviously, zero bullying and stuff like that.
After class, we could get some fresh air while walking from Math class to,
say, English class. Since people's homes are very different from each other,
it was also fun. There was no "standard" school interior so to speak. We also
had a better "connection" with our teachers. At home, everyone felt safe and
teachers were kind, calm and al that. Sometimes a teacher could bake a pie for
us or something similar. It was cool.

I live in New York now and we found a somewhat similar school for our kids.
The entire school has 15-17 students. Each class has 3-4 students max.
Tutoring happens at a multi-family house, which is also a place where the
principal of the school lives. My kids LOVE the school. They celebrate every
single birthday of each other, with cakes, gifts and al that. They visit
theaters, museums, movie theaters, farms, zoos, you name it. They also do
classes that are not popular in US, like Geography, Biology and they want to
add Chess and Yoga. My older one is 5 years old, he f#cking wants to travel.
He wants to visit Paris, London, Romania.

I can talk forever about our kids school, but to finish my comment, I'm a
believer that this type of "semi-decentralized" education is the right path. I
could be wrong though, but so far, it works out great.

~~~
Invictus0
Would you mind sharing more information about the school?

~~~
andreygrehov
Feel free to mail me.

------
laurieg
A friend of mine teaches middle school in Japan and he recounted this story of
a parent teacher meeting.

A girl, who was by all accounts a decent student, had not been doing some of
her homework recently. He brought it up in a casual and supportive way. The
mother busy into tears and apologised profusely, exclaiming that she was so
sorry for sending such a terrible didn't to this teacher's class etc. As this
goes on the daughter now starts crying in response.

My friend said this is a scene repeated again and again. Enormous amounts of
pressure from both the parents and the teachers (he is something of an
exception) is crushing children.

~~~
redis_mlc
There's a reporting segment running now on I believe CNN Asia about
Singaporean schools and "kiasu" culture.

Reporter: "How do you balance schoolwork and play?"

Singaporean Mom: "That is a good question. But my kids will thank me after
they are successful in life."

In other words, no balance except as an abstract thought. :)

~~~
chii
> after they are successful in life...

where the definition of success is based on the parent's perception of what
success means.

The child's opinions nor desires don't come into the picture.

~~~
krige
Ignoring the extremes, why would a child's opinion be taken into account in a
situation like this? What experiences does the child have that makes their
opinion valid in parenting issues?

~~~
plutonorm
Because respecting a child's autonomy leads to emotionally healthy, happier
and more successful adults?

------
nabla9
> In Japan, more and more children are refusing to go to school, a phenomenon
> called "futoko"

Articles about Japan always bring up Japanese names for things. What is the
reason for this?

You don't usually see the same for other countries: In German more and more
children are lonely, a phenomenon called "die Einsamkeit".

~~~
derefr
I think the thing journalists find interesting is that Japan is creating these
particular words at all, when most languages/cultures don’t bother. (Edited:
removed some badly-sourced assertions.)

We have an English word “truant”, referring to someone who _happens to not_
attend schooling; but we have no English word for someone who _actively
avoids_ the education system. This is an uncommon construction; I don’t think
there’s another language besides Japanese that has such a word. This is a
problem that has only risen to the level of intensity to need public knowledge
and communication about it _in_ Japan—at least, so far.

It’s interesting that they need such a word enough to not only create it, not
only to make it short, but that it seemingly is a word any average Japanese
person might now know. The fact that this word exists as a “layman’s term”
says a lot about the phenomena. The fact that it _replaced an earlier, less PC
word for the same thing_ says even more!

(But, besides the subtle statement being made by introducing an element of
cultural linguistic evolution, journalists are probably also trying to be “the
person who was responsible for introducing a loan-word into English.” Since
English _doesn’t_ have this word, but might _need_ it sooner-or-later, maybe
we’ll use the Japanese one, like we did with _taifuun_ , _karaoke_ , or
_emoji_. Probably the journalists who first used those words in English-
language articles feel very proud of themselves.)

~~~
ihuman
> We have an English word “truant”, referring to someone who happens to not
> attend schooling; but we have no English word for someone who actively
> avoids the education system

There's also "playing hooky". While it still refers to the action, IMO its
more about someone actively avoiding school/work.

~~~
derefr
“Playing hooky” is more about a particular “episode” of non-attendance,
though. A regular person, who otherwise enjoys attending school, can “play
hooky” because e.g. they want to stay home to play a newly-released video
game. _Futoko_ is—from my understanding—meant more as a sort of constitutional
property. It’s something these children _are_ , rather than something they’re
_doing_.

It’s like the difference between “being depressed” and “suffering from
depression.” One is a mood, that could be brought about by any number of
temporary environmental factors, and really isn’t a “problem” so much as an
often-expected reaction that will sort itself out. The other is a long-term
state of being with complex etiology that isn’t expected to resolve without
diagnosis and treatment.

------
jopsen
> In some cases they even decide on the colour of pupils' underwear.

Wow, Not to be judgmental, but maybe Japanese schools are a bit too strict...

I've never seen evidence that strict discipline creates good humans. Last I
checked modern pedagogy teaches us otherwise.

~~~
unsignedint
This is certainly more exception than norm.

But overall, strict rules on where it would be considered more of personal
choices elsewhere were governed by such rule.

Back in where I was in middle school (close to 30 years ago, so certainly
things have changed), I had:

1\. Mandatory close clipped hair for male (repealed within first year I've
attended -- I heard it took like 4 years of school council's effort do make
this happen.) 2\. Socks must be white 3\. Shoes must be white

There were somewhat implicit rules against hair dying, and eating lunch box
early (latter being more universal norm) -- both actually caused big scandal
when someone actually did those...

~~~
jopsen
> This is certainly more exception than norm.

I certainly expected so, I should probably have picked a less exceptional
example from the article..

Still regulating color of shoes and socks seems a bit unnecessary. Granted
school uniforms are common in some parts of the world (personally, I would
find it rather extreme).

------
known
I think schools should teach/protect kids from Machiavellianism
(manipulate/deceive others) Psychopathy (lack of remorse/empathy) Sadism
(pleasure in suffering of others) Narcissism (egotism/self-obsession)

~~~
electriclove
Agreed! If you find one that does this or have recommendations on how to teach
about this, please share. As a parent, I want to impart knowledge on these
things to my kids. We have always focused on teaching compassion and kindness.
The real world is full of all kinds of people, with all kinds of values or
lack of, and all kinds of parenting or lack of.

~~~
known
Kids should be taught about
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases)
and
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_tricks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_tricks)
whenever we feel they're ready to absorb/rationalize them;

------
ArcMex
If I could go back, would I attend school again? Yes but not for 18 years. Six
maybe. There are things that I learned from school that I appreciate so I am
not against going to school completely. This is similar to how I feel about my
desk job. I am not opposed to working 4 hour shifts from Mon to Wed over a
period of 10 years max.

------
gexla
I have been recently taking a break after a long hard project which took up
most of my time. Now I pretty much do whatever I feel like from the start of
my day. Luckily I have enough small, easy work to pay the bills while I figure
out what I would like to be doing longer term.

The free school in this article seems to match what I'm doing for "work" now.
The more strict, controlling school with controlling parents is a closer fit
to what I was doing previously. Maybe it's the parents and the parent's system
which is broken.

------
adrianmonk
Wow, this jogged a very long dormant memory of a record I used to have when I
was a kid: "The Boy Who Would Not Go To School" (available on YouTube:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBjv0CLtd7g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBjv0CLtd7g)).

Which is apparently kind of a (vinyl) audiobook adaptation of the 1935 classic
children's book "Robert Francis Weatherbee".

------
whiddershins
I tried as hard as I could not to go to school, beginning with second grade.

In retrospect I _maybe_ wish I had done an advanced degree, but avoiding
junior high and high school still seems the rational choice.

~~~
shantly
A US kid who hates school but has above-average general intelligence (so, not
the prodigies who teach themselves Attic Greek at age 6 and go to Harvard at
12, just normal 1-in-50 or 1-in-25 smart kids) can probably bail on high
school when they're 16, get into a community college (test scores ought to do
it), take all the courses for an associate's degree, then snag a GED when
eligible and officially pick up the degree. Doing all that plus having a part-
time job is _almost certainly_ a smaller time commitment than high school is
and you'll get basically the same education or somewhat better, except you'll
already have a degree and a ton of transferable credit toward a bachelor's at
age 18.

------
known
So why are so many children avoiding school in Japan?

Family circumstances, personal issues with friends, and bullying are among the
main causes, according to a survey by the ministry of education.

------
m4r35n357
The title says "children", people!

10 year olds, NOT college students.

------
unsignedint
Here's my anecdotal view on Japanese school. I have attended one from 1st to
2/3 into 7th grade (or 1st year of middle school) before I moved out to the
States.

School in Japan (and to extent the society) really focus any students not
standing out in a group. I was always considered by teachers, and peers, that
was "different" from others. (Basically I Was kind of guy who would be left
out when asked to "make a pair" in odd numbers.)

Fortunately, I could survive, as I wasn't really bullied much (happened time
to time) and had small group of good friends, some support from someone older
at school, and also befriended with some of teachers. Despite of this, feeling
that I'm the one who can't blend in, that sense of shame and frustration was
always reinforced. Without support, I would have had taken alternative way of
school to be honest. (and to this day, it just gives me chill how bad things
could have been if I actually had to stay in school in Japan for the rest of
my education and beyond...)

School system in the US is not that greatest thing either, however, at least
people left me alone for how I am. I attended to Japanese supplemental school
on Saturdays (that I was nearly forced to attend) for a little more than two
years and I didn't enjoy it for the same reasons I had problem with school in
Japan.

------
m3kw9
Asian school tend to have super high workloads even during summer holidays
they give you work to work over your Holiday. The pressure is immense as they
rate you from first to last, and parents do not like their kids to be in the
last 75%, let alone last. They see it as a disgrace to the family. Sadly
someone’s got to be back there. The pressure is immense. This is just a single
point amongst others I don’t have time to type

------
adamsea
"Many schools in Japan control every aspect of their pupils' appearance,
forcing pupils to dye their brown hair black, or not allowing pupils to wear
tights or coats, even in cold weather. In some cases they even decide on the
colour of pupils' underwear."

[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50693777](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-
asia-50693777)

------
Edward9
Maybe it's time for a global reform on schools' approach. I see more and more
that children aren't willing to attend school. And I think that's because the
approach is the same in the past 30-40 years, at least in my country, Nothing
changes, the literature is the same, the teaching methods are the same. I feel
that there's a need of change.

------
timwaagh
school is pretty terrible. if it wasn't for my parents being as strict as they
were i would have let go way before uni. personally i'd rather see the whole
system scrapped. it's easy to single out japan as its system has some very
particular demands. but the fundamental flaws don't stop at borders.

------
Copyrighted
I've had some decent experiences at university. I enjoyed talking with
professors in my field, meeting some incredibly talented people, and learning
things I probably wouldn't have learned outside of uni.

High school was useless and terrible though.

------
292929292
At one point or another, the human race is collectively going to have to admit
that schooling has reached absurdity. Unless you were a monarch or a very
wealthy aristocrat, the amount of schooling that children across the world
receive today is entirely unprecedented. Using US children as an example, look
back 100 years ago from now. Only about 60% of US children were enrolled in
school, the number of days in a median school year was about 120 (as opposed
to 180), and the median 25 year old only completed 8.2 years of schooling
([https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf](https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf)).

With that in mind, take a look at this list.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Index)

In the US, the number of years spent in school on average is now 13.2. In 100
years, the number of school days has increased by (13.2 * 180) - (8.2 * 120) =
1392 days.

Now consider the life of a modern US child. It is already decided before
they're born that they will spend 9 hours a day (8 at school, 1 for HW), 5
days a week, for ~13 years of their youth in an office environment. In this
office environment, children are expected to be quiet and stationary for the
wide majority of that time. If a child disobeys, it will be recorded on
several surveillance cameras, and the event will basically be remembered
forever. Despite being able to surveil every pupil, bullying is still somehow
a commonplace event. For the bullied, they have no recourse because they are
forced to interact with their bullies on a near-daily basis. How anyone can
convince themselves that this is a natural environment for children is beyond
me.

To be completely clear, I'm not saying I have an easy solution for this. This
is simply the reality of competing in a highly technological, global economy.
The need for menial labor is dropping everyday, and the demands of
specialization are becoming increasingly stringent. But like a man eating tree
bark in a famine, the necessity of the action doesn't magically improve the
circumstances. Whether anybody likes it or not, it is a hard fact that
governments around the world are forcing children to grow up in environments
where they can not move, can not talk, can not play, and must complete copious
amounts of paperwork.

Schooling has become the elephant in the room for several modern dilemmas. On
this site in particular, there have been numerous articles circulating about
the depression epidemic, the loneliness epidemic, record-breaking virginity,
record-breaking obesity, etc. etc. While unlikely to be sole cause for any of
those issues, it is a blindingly obvious contributor. If I force a child to
stay at a desk every morning until night for several years, it should come as
no surprise when the child's health and mental state starts to fail. Yet if I
do that in the name of education, this is a surprising result?

This is an untouchable subject for politicians, except when arguing to
_increase_ its size and scope. It is too easy for political opponents to smear
such candidates as "anti-education", and a large group of teachers / school
administrators consider such proposals to be an attack on their job security.
Unlike other job sectors, these teachers / school administrators have a
regular captive audience of children for 8 straight hours. Even
unintentionally, their political attitudes are bound to be reflected in their
students. So, the attitudes continue, and the cycle stays unbroken.

To hazard a guess, I don't think the end of this cycle is going to be an
intentional political action. I think it is much more likely to be a collapse,
based on the carelessness that this issue has been given up to now.
Eventually, the constraints placed on children are going to become unbearable,
and the rewards at the end of the pipeline will become too meager. If this
happens, there will a large number of people in a single generation going
insane en masse. Unfortunately, that would probably collapse more than just
the school system.

------
42droids
Do we have resources on alternative school systems? I remember, for example,
that Elon Musk runs an alternative school. Anybody ever attended one? Would
love to hear experiences.

------
hindsightbias
Perhaps it’s time for a new monastic lifestyle - Gibson and Stephenson should
write a book together.

~~~
hprotagonist
[https://slashdot.org/story/04/10/20/1518217/neal-
stephenson-...](https://slashdot.org/story/04/10/20/1518217/neal-stephenson-
responds-with-wit-and-humor)

it went interestingly last time! (C-f for "You don't have to settle for mere
idle speculation. Let me tell you how it came out on the three occasions when
we did fight. " )

~~~
hindsightbias
That was great!

------
known
Is obtaining a collection Certificates/Competencies a reasonable alternative
to those kids?

------
JoshTko
This is another clickbait article from BBC on how "Japan is weird". The number
of kids in the free schools seems tiny at about 0.2%.

------
Iv
"As the numbers keep rising, people are asking if it's a reflection of the
school system, rather than a problem with the pupils themselves."

Got some first hand experience here. Hard to not be a bit sarcastic. Geeze, I
don't know... Is it that the students of Japan are suddenly becoming stubborn
(or "weak") or is it that a system that:

\- does not fight bullying

\- does not fight racism

\- does not allow students any free time for any hobby

\- does recommend to sleep less in order to study more

\- does not allow to repeat a class and solely looks at date of birth to put
kids in a class

could, possibly, have some impact on the well-being of kids?

But worry not: Japanese TV knows how parents can solve that! It recommends
shouting and forcing sport on your lazy stay-at-home kid!

~~~
thrower123
What racism is there to fight in Japan? Are you sure you aren't just pulling
stock arguments out here?

~~~
moufestaphio
It's not exactly a secret.

Japan is super racist. They outright will often refuse services to
foreigners/non-ethnic Japanese.

Here's a quick few results:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_issues_in_Japan#Ethnic_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_issues_in_Japan#Ethnic_issues)

[https://www.scmp.com/week-
asia/politics/article/2123539/no-c...](https://www.scmp.com/week-
asia/politics/article/2123539/no-chinese-why-anti-china-racism-so-big-japan)

[https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Japan-Update/No-
forei...](https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Japan-Update/No-foreigners-
allowed-Survey-shows-heavy-discrimination-in-Japan)

~~~
blackearl
Right, but why would _Japanese_ children be refusing to go to school because
of racism toward non-Japanese?

~~~
mfoy_
Or if you're "Japanese" but with Korean heritage... I've heard stories of
people who had Korean ancestry and they had a deep terror of anyone ever
finding out.

~~~
moufestaphio
They're referred to as Zainichi.

After WW2, there was over 1 million Koreans living in Japan. Some went back,
some decided to wait due to the war starting.

Then the country they were going back to no longer existed, so they stayed.
Many don't even have citizenship.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/02/news/japanborn-koreans-
li...](https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/02/news/japanborn-koreans-live-in-
limbo.html)

~~~
blackearl
Many became yakuza because it's one of the few groups they could join.
Hisayuki Machii (Jeong Geon-Yeong) was a legendary Korean yakuza leader

~~~
moufestaphio
Yup I've heard the same, Yakuza leadership (also rank and file) has a lot of
Zainichi.

I also remember hearing about how Pachinko parlours are usually owned by
Yakuza/Zainichi and they funnel profits into North Korea.

