POLICY FRIGHTENS KOREANS IN JAPAN
7 In Japan one of the by-products of Johnson's escalation of the war in Vietnam has been a sudden rise in the number of resident South Koreans who wish to change their home address to North Korea, This requires permission from alien registration offices set up by the Japanese government.
At the Osaka and Kyoto offices alone, 180 insisted on chang= ing their addresses after many others had bowed to arguments from registration officials to go home without making the applications.
"Alarmed at the situation," reports the April 24 Japan Times, "the Japanese Government as well as local authorities are determined to stick to their policy of refusing the shift of citizenship as a rule,"
As to the reasons for this sharp shift, an officer at the Osaka prefectural policy headquarters said he thinks that "the Koreans fear they may be drafted into military service in South Koreaeee'
Besides this fact, "the recent move of the ROK Government to send troops to South Vietnam may have created the fear, " -according to the police. “ At Amagasaki some thirty Koreans came to the city office in_ a body to demand certificates to prove that they had made the transfer requests. Another group in Osaka were reported to be planning to organize pressure on registration officers to accept their written applications.
" JAPANESE MERCHANTS OF