 Justin McCurry of "The Guardian" stated that politically conservative Japanese people opposed the schools because since they believed that "a group that blatantly proclaims its loyalty to an unfriendly regime" should not receive the same treatment as the traditional Japanese education system.The schools received increasing support in the 1950s and 1960s since many Koreans in Japan sided with the Chongryon; at the time North Korea appeared to have good economic prospects.Beginning in 2010 and by 2014 increasing tensions between the Japanese and North Korean governments caused Japanese cities and prefectures to end subsidies to North Korean schools.