YOKOHAMA: Yong Hak was born and raised in Japan but will be rooting for his former team North Korea when the two teams meet in a World Cup qualifier in Tokyo on Thursday.
An is one of roughly 300,000 ethnic Koreans living in Japan, a group that has long suffered discrimination in areas such as employment and social security.
He attended a pro-Pyongyang school in Japan and played 40 times in midfield for North Korea, where he faced Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Yaya Toure at the 2010 World Cup.
This week’s qualifiers are a special occasion for some ethnic Koreans in Japan, especially those rooting for the North Korean team in the stands, as it is a chance for them to assert their identity.
“I played against Japan at Saitama Stadium in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers – they scored after injury time and we lost,” An, now 45 and a retired player, told AFP at PyeongChang’s school in Yokohama. Thursday’s game.
“But after the game we all shook hands and waved to the Japanese fans.
“It was a great game that went beyond the result and I hope it will be the same this time.
Ethnic Koreans in Japan are mostly descendants of civilians taken from their homes during Japan’s brutal colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 until Tokyo’s defeat in World War II in 1945.
Some like An, who is a third-generation ethnic Korean in Japan, are educated in schools supported by pro-North organizations and funded by Pyongyang.
Japan and North Korea do not have formal ties, but the Tokyo government allows the schools to operate, albeit without the subsidies it provides to other schools.
An started his career in Japan’s J-League but said representing North Korea came naturally.
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“I was born and raised in Japan, so to be honest, I knew the names and faces of the Japanese players better than the ROK players when I saw them on TV,” he said, using North Korea’s official name.
“But I am an ethnic Korean and my name is An Yong Hak. I thought of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as my national team and I always worked hard for it.”
An went on school trips to Pyongyang as a child and said he and his classmates were always given a warm welcome.
His international teammates weren’t as open at first, but “by the end we were like family,” he said.
“We live in different countries, but we are all human, so you treat each other in good faith and communicate,” he added.
“I’m a footballer so I’ve worked hard on the pitch and built up my confidence.
An was part of the North Korean team that reached the 2010 World Cup – the last time the country qualified for the tournament.
The team included a handful of other ethnic Koreans born in Japan, such as striker Jong Tae Se, who was known as “People’s Rooney” in a nod to England striker Wayne Rooney.
An says attendance at Korean schools in Japan is declining and the North Korean team for this week will likely feature only one Japanese-born player.
An runs a soccer school in Tokyo and Yokohama and wants to help create a new generation of North Korean internationals.
“The number of kids may be dwindling, but there are still some who dream of playing for Korea in the World Cup,” said An, who coached ethnic Koreans in Japan’s alternative World Cup for non-recognized nations after retiring. play in 2017.
An says that throughout his career, he tried to show ethnic Koreans in Japan what was possible, and in 2006 he became the first active North Korean national team player to play in South Korea’s K League.
He was warned that this could be difficult as the two countries were and still are technically at war, but the move proved successful.
Soccer has given a group of people who have long faced discrimination in Japan reasons to be proud, he said.
“I don’t want kids growing up to think that being ethnic Korean is something negative,” he added.
“I want them to use that to their advantage and realize they can do anything and show the next generation that they can do it too.”
