 The name came from "mukuge", the Japanese word for "hibiscus syriacus", a former symbol of resistance to Japanese colonial rule in Korea and the national flower of South Korea.He hoped to address the problems of violence and delinquency among Korean youth in Osaka; he chose to found a new association rather than work through existing ethnic associations such as Mindan or Chongryon because he felt both were more concerned with the politics of the Korean peninsula than of local Korean communities in Japan.Though at first they made little progress, their children's programme, founded in 1978, in Nariai was particularly successful; in 1985, they began a campaign which resulted in the establishment of a division in the city board of education devoted exclusively to education for ethnic Koreans, and the elimination of the requirement that city employees hold Japanese nationality.