Ethnic Korean Lee hopes to set example in Japan's Rugby World Cup squad

Japan flyhalf Lee Seung-sin said on Monday he wants to blaze a trail for his country's ethnic Korean population by playing at this year's Rugby World Cup.

READ | Foster keeps the faith as Cane retains All Blacks captaincy for Rugby Championship

Lee was born in Japan and is one of roughly 300 000 ethnic Koreans living there, a group that has long suffered discrimination in areas such as employment and social welfare.

Lee made his debut for Japan as a 21-year-old against Uruguay in June last year and started both home Test matches against France the following month.

Now he has his sights set on a place in head coach Jamie Joseph's final squad for this year's World Cup in France, and he wants to set an example for the ethnic Korean community.

"If I play at the World Cup, it will give a lot of encouragement for young kids aiming to stand on the same stage in the future," he said after a training session with Joseph's preliminary Japan squad.

"It will give them something to dream about, a route that they can see. By playing, I want to show people that it's possible."

Ethnic Koreans in Japan are mostly descendants of civilians taken from their homes during Japan's brutal colonisation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 until Tokyo's defeat in World War II in 1945.

The division of the Korean peninsula into North and South and the devastating 1950-53 Korean War also divided the community in Japan.

Some Koreans, like Lee, are educated at schools with backing from pro-North organisations and funding from Pyongyang.

He said representing his community was "a good motivation".

"I want to take on that responsibility and embrace the challenge," he said.

Test match experience

Lee was among 36 players named in Japan's Test squad as Joseph begins his