Present there were more than 200 Osaka citizens and Koreans in Japan.

The meeting began with the playing of piano by Yukie Ikebe, chairman of the Japan-Korea Society for Music and Art Interchange, on the theme of friendship and peace.

Masaaki Arimoto, co-representative of the Citizens Solidarity in Osaka Demanding Earlier Normalization of the Relations between Japan and DPRK, made an address.

He said that 8 years have passed since the formation of the solidarity, but the normalization of relations between the two countries has not yet been realized. He underlined the need to oppose the Japanese authorities' militarist lurch to the right and realize the normalization of relations between Japan and the DPRK at an early date.

Masahiro Tanba, head of the Osaka Defense Counsel for Judging the Tuition-Free Program for Senior High Schools, said in a lecture that the exclusion of Korean schools from the tuition-free program for senior high schools is an act quite contrary to Japan's constitution and international human rights law, and a human rights abuse that should never be allowed.

To defend the education right of the Korean schools is the struggle against the authorities' militarist lurch to the right and for the solidarity movement for peace in East Asia, so it is an important issue for Japanese people themselves, not confined to the Korean schools only, he noted.

He called for positively joining in the action to win the trial of the tuition-free program for senior high schools.

A written request addressed to the Japanese prime minister was adopted at the meeting.