Koreans in Japan: Difference between revisions
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In 1965 Japan concluded a [[Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea|Treaty on Basic Relations with South Korea]] and recognized the South Korean government as the only legitimate government of Korea.<ref name="Ryang2000-Ch2"/> |
In 1965 Japan concluded a [[Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea|Treaty on Basic Relations with South Korea]] and recognized the South Korean government as the only legitimate government of Korea.<ref name="Ryang2000-Ch2"/> |
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===Korean and Korean-Japanese Yakuza(Mafia)=== |
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While Koreans in Japan comprise only 0.5% of the population, they are a prominent part of yakuza, despite or perhaps because Koreans suffer severe discrimination in Japanese society along with burakumin. Zainichi Koreans are considered dangerous and they are feared or hated by majority of the Japanese poplulation. Some refer to them as the "Blacks" of Japan because they went through a similar history as the African Americans in the US and for their gangster image. [8][9]. More than 40 percent of the Yakuzas in Japan are Zainichi Koreans. (Many are South Korean Zainichis and about 10 percent are North Korean Zainichis)[10] Numbers show that one out of every six Zainichi Korean male is a member of the Yakuza. In early 1990s, 18 of 90 top bosses of Inagawa-kai were ethnic Koreans. National Police Agency (Japan) suggested Koreans comprised 10% along with 70% of burakumin in Yamaguchi-gumi.[8] Some of the representatives of the designated Bōryokudan are also.[11] The Korean significance had been an untouchable taboo in Japan and one of the reasons that the Japanese version of Kaplan and Dubro's Yakuza (1986) had not been published until 1991 with deletion of Korean-related description such as the component of Yamaguchi-gumi.[12] Although Japanese-born people of Korean ancestry are a significant segment of the Japanese population, they are still considered resident aliens because of their nationality. But Koreans, who are often shunned in legitimate trades, are embraced by the Japanese yakuza precisely because they fit the group's "outsider" image. |
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The man who paved the way for Korean-Japanese in Japanese by organizing Tōsei-kai was the Korean-Japanese yakuza godfather Hisayuki Machii.[13] Born Chong Gwon Yong in 1923 in Korea under Japanese rule, Machii was an ambitious street hood who saw opportunity in Japan and seized it. After the Japanese surrender, Machii worked with the United States Counter Intelligence Corps, which valued his staunch anti-communist beliefs. While leaders of the Japanese yakuza were imprisoned or under close scrutiny by the American occupying forces, the Korean yakuza were free to take over the lucrative black markets. But rather than trying to rival the Japanese godfathers, Machii made alliances with them, and throughout his career, he remained close to both Kodama and Taoka.[13] |
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In 1948 Machii established the Tosei-kai (Voice of the East Gang) and soon took over Tokyo's Ginza district, the Times Square of Japan's capital. The Tosei-kai became so powerful in Tokyo that they were known as the "Ginza police," and even the Yamaguchi-gumi's all-powerful Taoka had to cut a deal with Machii to allow that group to operate in Tokyo. Machii's vast empire included tourism, entertainment, bars and restaurants, prostitution, and oil importing. He and Kodama made a fortune on real estate investments alone. More importantly, he brokered deals between the Korean government and the yakuza that allowed Japanese criminals to set up rackets in Korea, a country that had been victimized by the Japanese for many years. Thanks to Machii, Korea became the yakuza's home away from home. Befitting his role as fixer between the underworlds of both countries, Machii was allowed to acquire the largest ferry service between Shimonoseki, Japan, and Busan, South Korea—the shortest route between the two countries. |
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In the mid-1960s, pressure from the police forced Machii to officially disband the Tosei-kai. He formed two supposedly legitimate organizations around this time, the Toa Sogo Kigyo (East Asia Enterprises Company) and Toa Yuai Jigyo Kumiai (East Asia Friendship Enterprises Association), which became fronts for his criminal activities. He was widely believed to have helped the Korean Central Intelligence Agency kidnap then-leading Korean opposition leader Kim Dae Jung from a Tokyo hotel (see kidnapping of Kim Dae-Jung). Kim was whisked out to sea where he was bound, gagged, blindfolded and fitted with weights so that his body would never surface. The execution by drowning was abruptly cancelled when aircraft buzzed the ship, and Kim was mysteriously delivered to his neighborhood in Seoul. American intervention is said to have saved his life. A police investigation revealed that Machii's people had rented every other room on the floor of the hotel where Kim had been staying, but Machii was never charged with any crime in connection with kidnapping. Machii "retired" in his 80s and was frequently seen vacationing in Hawaii. He died on September 14, 2002. |
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Also, Tokutaro Takayama was the kaicho of the Fourth Aizukotetsu yakuza gang. An ethnic Korean, he rose to power as the head of the Kyoto-based gang until his retirement in the 1990s. |
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===Division between Chongryon and Mindan=== |
===Division between Chongryon and Mindan=== |
Revision as of 06:16, 5 February 2008
Holding North Korean nationality (also used regardless of nationality) | |
---|---|
Hangul | 재일조선인 |
Hanja | 在日朝鮮人 |
Revised Romanization | Jaeil Joseonin |
McCune-Reischauer | Chae'il Chosŏnin |
Kanji | 在日朝鮮人 |
Rōmaji | Zainichi Chōsenjin |
Holding South Korean nationality | |
Hangul | 재일한국인 |
Hanja | 在日韓國人 |
Revised Romanization | Jaeil Hangugin |
McCune-Reischauer | Chae'il Hankukin |
Kanji | 在日韓国人 |
Rōmaji | Zainichi Kankokujin |
Regardless of nationality (in Korea) | |
Hangul | 재일동포 |
Hanja | 在日同胞 |
Revised Romanization | Jaeil Dongpo |
McCune-Reischauer | Chae'il Tongpo |
Regardless of nationality (in Japan) | |
Kanji | 在日コリアン |
Rōmaji | Zainichi Korian |
Koreans in Japan are the ethnic Korean residents of Japan. They currently constitute the largest ethnic minority group in Japan. The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans, also often known as Zainichi for short, who are the permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan. Strictly speaking, the term "Zainichi Korean" refers only to long term, permanent residents of Japan who have retained either their Joseon (old, undivided Korea) or South Korean nationalities, not Korean-Japanese, or ethnic Koreans who have acquired Japanese nationality through naturalization.
The Japanese word Zainichi itself means "staying in Japan." For example, Zainichi-Gaikokujin (在日外国人) refers to "foreign nationals living in Japan", while Zainichi-Beigun (在日米軍) refers to United States Forces Japan. However, "Zainichi" on its own usually refers to Zainichi Koreans because of their significant presence in Japanese society.
Statistics
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Population_of_Koreans_in_Japan.gif/400px-Population_of_Koreans_in_Japan.gif)
According to the statistics at Immigration Bureau of Japan[1] there were 613,791 Koreans in Japan in 2003. This figure does not include those who have adopted Japanese citizenship.
The 2005 figures are as follows:[2]
- Those with permanent resident status (general and special categories): 515,570
- Naturalized Japanese citizens: 284,840
- Long-term visitors: 82,666
- Korean students in Japan: 18,208
- Total: 901,284
History
Origins
Modern Zainichi Koreans can trace their diaspora to the early 20th century under Imperial Japanese rule. In 1910, as the result of the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty, all Korean people became subjects of the Empire of Japan. Japanese land and production confiscation initiatives against Korean farmers during the 1910s caused a wave of economic migrants during the 1920s. Also noteworthy was the large number of Jeju-do residents who migrated to Japan to escape discrimination in Korea during this period.
During World War II
In 1939, labor shortages due to World War II led to organised official recruitment of Koreans to work in mainland Japan, initially through civilian agents, and later directly, often involving elements of coercion or deception. In 1944, the Japanese authorities extended the mobilization of Japanese civilians for labor to the Korean peninsula. Of the 5,400,000 Koreans conscripted, about 670,000 were taken to mainland Japan (including Karafuto Prefecture (present-day Sakhalin, now part of Russia) for civilian labor. Those who were brought to Japan were forced to work in factories, in mines and as laborers, often under appalling conditions. About 60,000 died between 1939 and 1945 from harsh treatment, inhumane working conditions and allied bombings.[3] Most of the wartime laborers went home after the war, but some remained in Japan, while 43,000 of those in Karafuto, which had been occupied by the Soviet Union just prior to Japan's surrender, were refused repatriation to either mainland Japan or the Korean peninsula, and were thus trapped in Sakhalin, stateless; they became the ancestors of the Sakhalin Koreans.[4]
A 1982 survey by the Korean Youth Association showed that conscripted labor accounts for 13.3% of first-generation zainichi Koreans.
Loss of Japanese nationality
Immediately following the end of World War II, there were roughly 2.4 million Koreans in Japan; the majority repatriated to their ancestral homes in the southern half of the Korean peninsula, leaving only 650,000 in Japan by 1946.[5]
Japan's defeat in the war and its loss of sovereignty over the Korean peninsula and Taiwan left the nationality status of Koreans and Taiwanese in an ambiguous position in terms of law. The Alien Registration Ordinance (外国人登録令, Gaikokujin-tōroku-rei) of 2 May 1947, ruled that Koreans and some Taiwanese were to be provisionally treated as foreign nationals. Given the lack of a functional nation on the Korean peninsula, Koreans were provisionally registered under the name of Joseon (Japanese: Chōsen, 朝鮮), the old name of undivided Korea.
In 1948, the northern and southern parts of Korea declared independence individually, making Joseon, or the old undivided Korea, a defunct nation. The new government of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) made a request to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, then the occupying power of Japan, to change the nationality registration of Zainichi Koreans to Daehan Minguk (대한민국, 大韓民國; Japanese: Daikan Minkoku, 大韓民国), the official name of the new nation. Following this, from 1950 onwards, Zainichi Koreans were allowed to voluntarily re-register their nationality as such.
The Allied occupation of Japan ended on 28 April 1952 with the San Francisco Peace Treaty, in which Japan formally abandoned its territorial claim to the Korean peninsula, and as a result, Zainichi Koreans formally lost their Japanese nationality.[6]
The division on the Korean peninsula led to division among Koreans in Japan. Mindan, or the Korean Residents Union in Japan, was set up in 1946 as a pro-South offshoot of Chōren (League of Koreans in Japan), the main Korean residents' organisation, which had a socialist ideology. Following the May Day riots of 1952, the pro-North organisation was made illegal, but it re-formed under various guises and went on to form the "General Association of Korean Residents in Japan", or Chongryon, in 1955. This organisation kept to its socialist, and by extension pro-North stance, and enjoyed the active financial support and advisement of the North Korean government.[5]
In 1965 Japan concluded a Treaty on Basic Relations with South Korea and recognized the South Korean government as the only legitimate government of Korea.[5]
Korean and Korean-Japanese Yakuza(Mafia)
While Koreans in Japan comprise only 0.5% of the population, they are a prominent part of yakuza, despite or perhaps because Koreans suffer severe discrimination in Japanese society along with burakumin. Zainichi Koreans are considered dangerous and they are feared or hated by majority of the Japanese poplulation. Some refer to them as the "Blacks" of Japan because they went through a similar history as the African Americans in the US and for their gangster image. [8][9]. More than 40 percent of the Yakuzas in Japan are Zainichi Koreans. (Many are South Korean Zainichis and about 10 percent are North Korean Zainichis)[10] Numbers show that one out of every six Zainichi Korean male is a member of the Yakuza. In early 1990s, 18 of 90 top bosses of Inagawa-kai were ethnic Koreans. National Police Agency (Japan) suggested Koreans comprised 10% along with 70% of burakumin in Yamaguchi-gumi.[8] Some of the representatives of the designated Bōryokudan are also.[11] The Korean significance had been an untouchable taboo in Japan and one of the reasons that the Japanese version of Kaplan and Dubro's Yakuza (1986) had not been published until 1991 with deletion of Korean-related description such as the component of Yamaguchi-gumi.[12] Although Japanese-born people of Korean ancestry are a significant segment of the Japanese population, they are still considered resident aliens because of their nationality. But Koreans, who are often shunned in legitimate trades, are embraced by the Japanese yakuza precisely because they fit the group's "outsider" image.
The man who paved the way for Korean-Japanese in Japanese by organizing Tōsei-kai was the Korean-Japanese yakuza godfather Hisayuki Machii.[13] Born Chong Gwon Yong in 1923 in Korea under Japanese rule, Machii was an ambitious street hood who saw opportunity in Japan and seized it. After the Japanese surrender, Machii worked with the United States Counter Intelligence Corps, which valued his staunch anti-communist beliefs. While leaders of the Japanese yakuza were imprisoned or under close scrutiny by the American occupying forces, the Korean yakuza were free to take over the lucrative black markets. But rather than trying to rival the Japanese godfathers, Machii made alliances with them, and throughout his career, he remained close to both Kodama and Taoka.[13]
In 1948 Machii established the Tosei-kai (Voice of the East Gang) and soon took over Tokyo's Ginza district, the Times Square of Japan's capital. The Tosei-kai became so powerful in Tokyo that they were known as the "Ginza police," and even the Yamaguchi-gumi's all-powerful Taoka had to cut a deal with Machii to allow that group to operate in Tokyo. Machii's vast empire included tourism, entertainment, bars and restaurants, prostitution, and oil importing. He and Kodama made a fortune on real estate investments alone. More importantly, he brokered deals between the Korean government and the yakuza that allowed Japanese criminals to set up rackets in Korea, a country that had been victimized by the Japanese for many years. Thanks to Machii, Korea became the yakuza's home away from home. Befitting his role as fixer between the underworlds of both countries, Machii was allowed to acquire the largest ferry service between Shimonoseki, Japan, and Busan, South Korea—the shortest route between the two countries.
In the mid-1960s, pressure from the police forced Machii to officially disband the Tosei-kai. He formed two supposedly legitimate organizations around this time, the Toa Sogo Kigyo (East Asia Enterprises Company) and Toa Yuai Jigyo Kumiai (East Asia Friendship Enterprises Association), which became fronts for his criminal activities. He was widely believed to have helped the Korean Central Intelligence Agency kidnap then-leading Korean opposition leader Kim Dae Jung from a Tokyo hotel (see kidnapping of Kim Dae-Jung). Kim was whisked out to sea where he was bound, gagged, blindfolded and fitted with weights so that his body would never surface. The execution by drowning was abruptly cancelled when aircraft buzzed the ship, and Kim was mysteriously delivered to his neighborhood in Seoul. American intervention is said to have saved his life. A police investigation revealed that Machii's people had rented every other room on the floor of the hotel where Kim had been staying, but Machii was never charged with any crime in connection with kidnapping. Machii "retired" in his 80s and was frequently seen vacationing in Hawaii. He died on September 14, 2002.
Also, Tokutaro Takayama was the kaicho of the Fourth Aizukotetsu yakuza gang. An ethnic Korean, he rose to power as the head of the Kyoto-based gang until his retirement in the 1990s.
Division between Chongryon and Mindan
Out of the two Korean organizations in Japan, the pro-North Chongryon has been the more militant in terms of retaining Koreans' ethnic identity. Its policies included:
- Operation of about 60 ethnic Korean schools across Japan, initially partly funded by the North Korean government, in which lessons were conducted in Korean. They maintain a strong pro-North Korean ideology, which has sometimes come under criticism from pupils, parents, and the public alike.
- Discouraging its members from taking up Japanese citizenship.
- Discouraging its members from marrying Japanese.
- Chongryon-operated businesses and banks to provide the necessary jobs, services, and social networks for Zainichi Koreans outside mainstream society.
- Opposition to Zainichi Koreans' right to vote or participation in Japanese elections, which they saw as an unacceptable attempt at assimilation into Japanese society.[7]
- A home-coming movement to North Korea in the late 1950s,[8] which it hailed as a socialist "Paradise on Earth". Some 90,000 Zainichi Koreans and their Japanese spouses moved to the North before the migration eventually died down as the appalling conditions which awaited them became increasingly clear.
Pro-North Zainichi who maintained their Joseon nationalities have been called "North Koreans in Japan" in English by writers such as Sonia Ryang. While this term is not technically incorrect, it is somewhat misleading. Zainichi Chōsenjin in the vast majority of cases settled in Japan before the modern state of North Korea was instituted, and in most cases originate from the south of the Korean Peninsula. Their status as "North Koreans" is based almost entirely on their historical ideological loyalties.
Well into at least the 1970s, Chongryon was the dominant Zainichi group, and in some ways remains more politically significant today in Japan. However, the widening disparity between the political and economic conditions of the two Koreas has since made Mindan, the pro-South Korean group, the larger and certainly the less politically controversial faction. 65% of Zainichi are now said to be affiliated to Mindan. The number of pupils receiving ethnic education from Chongryon-affiliated schools has declined sharply, with many, if not most, Zainichi now opting to send their children to mainstream Japanese schools. Some Chongryon schools have been closed for lack of funding, and there is serious doubt as to the continuing viability of the system as a whole. (Mindan has also traditionally operated a school system for the children of its members, although it has been always been less widespread and organized compared to its Chongryon counterpart, and is said to be nearly defunct at the present time.)
Repatriation to Korea
Repatriation of Zainichi Koreans from Japan conducted under the auspices of the Japanese Red Cross began to receive official support from the Japanese government as early as 1956; a North Korean-sponsored repatriation programme with support of the Chōsen Sōren (The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan) officially began in 1959. The Japanese government was in favour of repatriation not only as a way to reduce the number of welfare or other public assistance recipients in a time of economic difficulty, but also as a way to rid the country of ethnic minority residents regarded as "Communist", "violent", "ignorant", or "subversive."[9] Though the United States government was initially unaware of Tokyo's cooperation with the repatriation programme, they offered no objection after they were informed of it; the US ambassador to Japan was quoted by his Australian counterpart as describing the Koreans in Japan as "a poor lot including many Communists and many criminals".[10]
Despite the fact that 97% of the Zainichi Koreans originated from the southern half of the Korean peninsula, the North was initially a far more popular destination for repatriation than the South; however, as word came back of difficult conditions faced in the North, and with the 1965 normalization of Japan-South Korea relations, the popularity of repatriation to the North dropped sharply, though the trickle of returnees to the reclusive communist state continued as late as 1984.[11] In total, 93,340 people migrated from Japan to North Korea under the repatriation programme; an estimated 6,000 were actually Japanese migrating with Korean spouses. Around one hundred such repatriates are believed to have later escaped from North Korea; the most famous is Kang Chol-Hwan, who published a book about his experience, The Aquariums of Pyongyang.[10] Though repatriates in general faced social discrimination and political repression, with as many as 10,000 being imprisoned in concentration camps, some rose to positions of power in the North Korean government; one returnee who later defected back to Japan, known only by his Japanese pseudonym Kenki Aoyama, worked for North Korean intelligence as a spy in Beijing.[12] The repatriations have been the subject of numerous creative works in Japan, due to the influence they had on the Zainichi Korean community; one documentary film about a family in which the sons repatriated while the parents and daughter remained in Japan, Dear Pyongyang, won a special jury prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.[13]
Some Zainichi Koreans have also gone to South Korea to study or to settle; for example, author Lee Yangji studied at Seoul National University in the early 1980s.[14]
Integration into Japanese society
Zainichi today have established a stable presence in Japan after years of activism. Through Mintohren, community support by Zainichi organizations (Mindan, Chongryon, Mintoren, among others), other minority groups (Ainu, Burakumin, Ryūkyūans, Uilta, Nivkhs and others), and sympathetic Japanese, they have improved the societal atmosphere for Zainichi in Japan.
Most younger Zainichi now speak only Japanese, work for Japanese firms and increasingly marry Japanese. Some opt to gain Japanese citizenship though naturalization; according the statistics at the Ministry of Justice of Japan,[15] about 10,000 Koreans naturalize in Japan every year. Others choose to retain their South Korean or Joseon nationality as part of their heritage (neither Japanese nor South Korean nationality laws allow multiple citizenship for adults).
Residents Registration
Japan used to take fingerprints as part of the registration process for foreign residents, a policy which has been a subject of much controversy, especially among resident Koreans. After many years of campaigning, the requirement was abolished in 1992 for those with "Special Permanent Residents" status i.e. zainichi Koreans. In 1999, the Alien Registration Law was further amended to eliminate fingerprinting of foreign residents in general. Mindan expressed disappointment as it did not eliminate the requirement that foreign residents carry their registration cards at all times, and Koreans protested in Tokyo alongside Thais, Filipinos and Brazilians dressed in traditional costumes of their homelands.
Right to vote & government employment
Long-term ethnic Korean residents of Japan who have not taken up Japanese nationality currently have the legal status of Tokubetsu Eijusha ("Special Permanent Residents") and are granted special rights and privileges compared to other foreigners, especially in matters such as re-entry and deportation statutes. These privileges were originally given to residents with South Korean nationality in 1965, and were extended in 1991 to cover those who have retained their "Joseon nationality".
Over the decades, zainichi Koreans have been campaigning to regain their Japanese citizenship rights without having to adopt Japanese nationality. The right to claim social welfare benefits was granted in 1954, followed by access to the national health insurance scheme (1960s) and state pensions (1980s). There is some doubt over the legality of some of these payments as the Public Assistance Law, which governs social welfare payments, is seen to apply to "Japanese nationals."
There have also been campaigns to allow zainichi Koreans to take up government employment and participate in elections, rights which have been open to Japanese nationals only. Since 1992 Mindan has been campaigning for the right to vote in elections for prefectural and municipal assemblies, mayors and prefecture governors, backed by the South Korean government. In 1997 Kawasaki became the first municipality to hire a Korean national. So far, three prefectures - Osaka, Nara and Kanagawa - have granted voting rights to permanent foreign residents. However, the Japanese Diet has not yet passed a resolution regarding this matter despite several attempts by political parties to do so, and there is considerable public and political opposition against granting voting rights to those who have not yet adopted Japanese nationality.[citation needed]
Chongryon, on the other hand, opposes moves to allow zainichi Koreans to participate in Japanese politics, on the basis that it assimilates Koreans into Japanese society and thus weakens the Korean ethnic identity.[16]
Korean Schools
The pro-Pyongyang Chongryon operates 218 Korean schools (Japanese: 朝鮮学校, Korean: 조선학교/우리학교, Hanja: 朝鮮學校) across Japan, including kindergartens and one university. All lessons, and all conversations within the school are conducted in Korean. They teach a strong pro-North Korean ideology and allegiance to Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. (Mindan also operates a few schools but are said to be nearly defunct.) They are not classified as regular schools under Japanese law as they do not follow the national curriculum, but rather as "miscellaneous schools" alongside driving schools. This has led to many discrepancies with regular Japanese schools which Chongryon calls discriminatory.
One of the issues is funding. The schools were originally set up and run with support from the North Korean government but this money has now dried up, and with dropping pupil numbers, many schools are facing financial difficulties. The Japanese government has refused Chongryon's requests that it funds ethnic schools in line with regular Japanese schools, citing Article 89 of the Japanese Constitution, where use of public funds for education by non-public bodies is prohibited. In reality the schools are in fact partly funded by local authorities, but subsidies takes place in the form of special benefits paid to the families of pupils, as opposed to paying the schools directly, in order to avoid a blatant breach of Article 89. It is also much less than regular Japanese schools.
Another issue is an examination called the High School Equivalency Test, or daiken, which qualifies those who have not graduated from a regular high school to apply for a place in a state university and take an entrance exam. Until recently, only those who have completed compulsory education (i.e. up to junior high school) were entitled to take daiken; this meant pupils of ethnic schools had to do extra courses before being allowed to take the exam. In 1999 the requirement was amended so that anyone over a certain age are qualified. Campaigners were not satisfied because this still meant graduates of non-Japanese high schools had to take daiken. In 2003, the Education Ministry removed the requirement to take the Equivalency Test from graduates of Chinese schools, Mindan-run Korean schools and international schools affiliated with Western nations and accredited by U.S. and British organizations. However this did not apply to graduates of pro-Pyongyang Korean schools, saying it could not approve their curricula. The decision was left up to individual universities, 70% of which allowed Korean school graduates to apply directly.[17]
Pass name
Pass name | |||||||
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Korean name | |||||||
Hangul | 통명 | ||||||
Hanja | 通名 | ||||||
| |||||||
Japanese name | |||||||
Kanji | 通名 | ||||||
|
Traditionally. Zainichi Koreans used Japanese-style pass names in public, but some Zainichi Koreans, including celebrities and professional sportsmen, use their original Korean names. Well-known ethnic Koreans who use Japanese names include Hanshin Tigers star Tomoaki Kanemoto and pro wrestlers Riki Chōshū and Akira Maeda.
Controversies over Chongryon
For a long time, Chongryon enjoyed unofficial immunity from searches and investigations, partly because authorities were reluctant to carry out any actions which may provoke not only accusations of racism but lead to an international incident. Chongryon has long been suspected of a variety of criminal acts on behalf of North Korea, such as illegal transfer of funds to North Korea and espionage, but no action was taken. However, recent escalating tensions between and Japan and North Korea over a number of issues, namely North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals which came to light in 2002 as well as its nuclear weapons program, has led to a resurgence of public animosity against Chongryon. Chongryon schools have alleged numerous cases of verbal abuse and physical violence directed against their students and buildings, and Chongryon facilities have been targets of protests and occasional incidents. The Japanese authorities have recently started to crack down on Chongryon, with investigations and arrests for charges ranging from tax evasion to espionage. These moves are usually criticized by Chongryon as acts of political suppression.[18] .
Furthermore, the Japanese authorities have recently started to crack down on Chongryon activities, moves usually criticized by Chongryon as acts of political suppression.[18]
In December 2001, police raided Chongryon's Tokyo headquarters and related facilities to investigate Chongryon officials' suspected role in embezzlement of funds from the failed Tokyo Chogin credit union.[19]
In 2002, Shotaro Tochigi, deputy head of the Public Security Investigation Agency told a session of the House of Representatives Financial Affairs Committee that the agency is investigating Chongryon for suspected illicit transfers of funds to the North.[20] The image of Chongryon was further tarnished by North Korea's surprise 2002 admission that it had indeed abducted Japanese nationals in the 1970s, as it had been categorically and fiercely denying for many years that the abductions had ever taken place and dismissing rumors of North Korean involvement as an allegedly “racist fantasy.” Some of the recent drop in membership of Chongryon is thought to be attributed to ordinary members of Chongryon who had believed the party line feeling deeply humiliated and disillusioned upon discovering that they had been used as mouthpieces to deny what was seen in Japan as serious wrongdoing by North Korea.
In March 2006, police raided six Chongryon-related facilities in an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the June 1980 disappearance of one of the alleged abductees, Tadaaki Hara. Police spokesman said that the head of Chongryon at the time is suspected of co-operating in his kidnap.[21]
The operation of the Mangyongbong-92 (temporarily suspended for six months as of July 2006), a North Korean ferry that is the only regular direct link between North Korea and Japan, is a subject of significant tension, as the ferry is primarily used by Chongryon to send its members to North Korea and to supply North Korea with money and goods donated by the organization and its members. Although the humanitarian aspect of such contributions cannot be denied, particularly given that older Chongryon members have immediate family in North Korea, Chongryon members also continue to send lavish gifts, such as cash, expensive western liquor, and Japanese beef, to Kim Jong Il and other high-ranking North Korean officials.[citation needed]. In 2003, a North Korean defector made a statement to the US Senate committee stating that more than 90% of the parts used by North Korea to construct its missiles were brought from Japan aboard the ship.[22]
In May 2006, Chongryon and the pro-South Mindan agreed to reconcile, only for the agreement to break down the following month due to Mindan's distrust of Chongryon. North Korea's missile tests in July 2006 have deepened the divide, with Chongryon refusing to condemn the missile tests, expressing only its regret that the Japanese government has suspended the operation of the Mangyongbong-92. Outraged senior Mindan officials joined mainstream Japanese politicians and media in sharply criticizing Chongryon's silence over the matter.
Footnotes
- ^ Template:Ja icon 平成15年末現在における外国人登録者統計について.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Rummel, R. J. (1999). Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1990. Lit Verlag. ISBN 3-8258-4010-7.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) Available online: "Statistics of Democide: Chapter 3 - Statistics Of Japanese Democide Estimates, Calculations, And Sources". Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War. Retrieved 2006-03-01. - ^ Lankov, Andrei (2006-01-05). "Stateless in Sakhalin". The Korea Times. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
- ^ a b c Ryang, Sonia (2000). Koreans in Japan: Critical Voices from the Margin. United Kingdom: Routledge.
- ^ United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (September 26, 2000): "E. Korean residents in Japan 32. The majority of Korean residents, who constitute about one third of the foreign population in Japan, are Koreans (or their descendants) who came to reside in Japan for various reasons during the 36 years (1910-1945) of Japan's rule over Korea and who continued to reside in Japan after having lost Japanese nationality, which they held during the time of Japan's rule, with the enforcement of the San Francisco Peace Treaty (28 April 1952)."
- ^ Yonhap news, May 17, 2006.
- ^ Template:Ja icon Abe Shunji, The Home-coming Movement Seen from North Korea: An Interview with Mr. Oh Gi-Wan, the Former Member of the Reception Committee for Japan's Korean Returnees, Bulletin of Faculty of Education, Nagasaki University. Social science, Nagasaki University, Vol.61(20020630) pp. 33-42. ISSN 03882780
- ^ Morris-Suzuki, Tessa (2005-02-07). "Japan's Hidden Role In The 'Return' Of Zainichi Koreans To North Korea". ZNet. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
The motives behind the official enthusiasm for repatriation are clearly revealed by Inoue Masutaro, who described Koreans in Japan as being "very violent,"[6] "in dark ignorance,"[7] and operating as a "Fifth Column" in Japanese society. ... Inoue is reported as explaining that the Japanese government wanted to "rid itself of several tens of thousands of Koreans who are indigent and vaguely communist, thus at a stroke resolving security problems and budgetary problems (because of the sums of money currently being dispensed to impoverished Koreans)
- ^ a b Morris-Suzuki, Tessa (2007-03-13). "The Forgotten Victims of the North Korean Crisis". Nautilus Institute. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
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(help) - ^ NOZAKI, Yoshiki. "Legal Categories, Demographic Change and Japan's Korean Residents in the Long Twentieth Century". Japan Focus.
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Spy's escape from North Korean 'hell'". BBC News. 2003-01-06. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
- ^ "2006 Sundance Film Festival announces awards for documentary and dramatic films in independent film and world cinema competitions" (PDF) (Press release). Sundance Film Festival. 2006-01-28. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
- ^ SHIN Eunju (申銀珠). "ソウルの異邦人、その周辺一李艮枝「由煕」をめぐって (Portrait of a Foreigner's World in Seoul: Yuhi by Yi Yangji)" (PDF). Niigata University of International and Information Studies.
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(help) - ^ 過去10年間の帰化許可申請者数,帰化許可者数等の推移 (Japanese).
- ^ "Moves to legislate on "suffrage" in Japan condemned". Korean Central News Agency. 2000-03-22. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
- ^ Ed-Info Japan News from September, to December, 2003
- ^ a b FM Spokesman Urges Japan to Stop Suppression of Chongryon.
- ^ Gov't defends police raid on Chongryon head office (Japan Policy & Politics, December 3, 2001)
- ^ CORRECTED: Pro-Pyongyang group rules out link to abduction (Asian Political News, November 18, 2002)
- ^ Friday, April 07, 2006; Volume 02, Number 14 of the Japan Considered Podcast.
- ^ N Korea ferry struggling against the tide (BBC News Online, June 9, 2003)
See also
- Koreatowns in Japan
- Demographics of Japan
- Korean-Japanese disputes
- Ryukyuan people
- Ainu people
- Yamato people
- List of people of mixed Japanese and Korean descent
External links
- FCCJ(The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan)Mr.Suganuma of former Public Security Investigation Agency tells it about Zainichi Korean (Japanese, English)
- South Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan) (Korean, Japanese, English)
- History of Mindan (English)
- Online Newspaper covering Zainichi Korean and Mindan (English)
- The Federation of Korean Associations, Japan (Korean, Japanese)
- North Korean Residents Union in Japan (Joseon Chongryon) (Korean, Japanese)
- The Han World - a site for Korean residents in Japan.
- The Self-Identities of Zainichi Koreans - a paper on Zainichi.
- MINTOHREN: Young Koreans Against Ethnic Discrimination in Japan
- Panel discussion in San Francisco Nichi Bei Times Article
- Testing Tolerance: Fallout from North Korea's Nuclear Program Hits Minorities in Japan article from The Common Language Project