Most people don’t realise that there is a big North Korean community living in Japan. After the Korean peninsula was devided into half in 1945, there were still hundreds of thousands of Koreans living in Japan. Some of them returned to Korea, but many of them stayed in Japan and live here until today. I visited director of Life Funds for North Korean Refugees NGO, Hiroshi Kato, and talked with him about the history of Japanese Koreans.

Life Funds for North Korean Refugees is a Tokyo based NGO that helps North Korean defectors to safely cross China and find new home. They also help out North Koreans living in Japan in adjusting to new life. It’s often a problem for Koreans to find a job and Japan is not an exception. Director of LFNKR, Hiroshi Kato, told me the story of North Koreans in Japan and problems they face in daily life.

If you want to learn more about this organisation, then check out their official website in English. They also have a Youtube channel where they post video interviews with defectors living in Japan – LFNKR Youtube channel.

You can watch the full interview with director Hiroshi Kato on my Youtube Channel.