Zainichi Koreans had been discriminated against. The first or second generations of them really know the hardness of living as Zainich in Japan. On the other hand, the third and fourth generation of them have grown in Japan same as other Japanese. They also have been suffered from discrimination, but their problems are related to identity rather than discrimination. They would think and think again about their identity: “Am not I Japanese? Am I Korean?” I think there are some hints in plural society, the US.

“Cultural Pluralism” is one of the thought that deal with plural society. It said that ethnicities are always being re-made. Ethnicities are not fixed, but they keep changing. Glazer and Moynihan said in ‘Beyond the Melting Pot’, that Ethnicities “are continually recreated by new experiences in America”. They meant Irish American are not same as Irish in Ireland. In the light of these, I would say Zainichi Koreans are neither Japanese nor Korean; they are “Zainichi Koreans”. They are different from Korean in Korea because they did not grow up in Korea with Korean culture. They grew up in Japan same as Japanese, but they are quite different from other Japanese because their background is in Korea. If they really want to be Japanese and cannot, it would be bad for them and really unfair. However, at the same time, they do not have to be Japanese. They can be different and claim their right and identity. Who have to change their way to think is rest of Japanese. They need to accept diversity in Japan.

by Nana Uno

Kyoto is one of the prefectures which hold some areas where Zainichi Koreans live densely such as Yamashina area and Utoro area in Uji City. In this post, I would like to make the definition of “Zainichi Korean” clear and introduce the situations of Zainichi Koreans in Kyoto. As a conclusion I would like to discuss about the contradiction within Japanese society towards Zainichi Koreans.

The narrowest definition of “Zainichi Korean” is “Koreans remained in Japan with Korean nationality after WWII, including their descendants”. When complied with this definition, the population of Zainichi Korean in Japan overall reached 650,000 (excluding those became naturalized as Japanese citizen). If those who naturalized were included, the population could be predicted to be over 2,000,000.

As a situation of Zainichi Korean in Kyoto, let me pay my attention to the problem that Zainichi Koreans face in applying to university. There are 150 ethnic schools in Japan, including some in Kyoto just like the one showed up in the film “Pacchigi!”. If a Zainichi Korean wanted to apply to Kyoto University for example, he/she would have a difficult time in order to do so. Because the Ministry of Education excludes Zainichi Koreans from the qualification of examination, Zainichi Koreans must take extra work, such as going to correspondence school and writing numerous essays just to be allowed to apply to Japanese university. Moreover, since ethnic schools are not approved by the government as a legitimate school, they must pay extra fees compared to regular Japanese students.

Don’t you see a contradiction of this situation with another stream within Japanese society, “Hanryu Boom”? On one side Japanese prefer Korean culture while they try to exclude Zainichi Koreans out of the society at the same time. In my opinion, this contradictory situation indicates the gap of consciousness between the Japanese and the Japanese government. Therefore, Japanese government is trying to exclude and foreclose Zainichi Korean, or even any other foreigners, while Japanese people are accepting the situation.

by Minami Hosokawa 

     Since April 2010, tuition fees of high schools in Japan have started to be assisted by the government, in order to help those who want to learn. For public high school students, all of tuition fees are paid by government thus they don’t have to pay at all. For private high school students, about 120,000 yen is paid for schools by government, and they pay rest of it. Students in severe economic hardship can be provided maximum 240,000 yen for private high schools. This is a great decision. My sister has high school education for free, it’s absolutely nice.

     However there is an exception. Chousen-schools are excluded from this decision because Chousen-schools are not “normal” high school that the ministry of education defines (Ichijoukou). Chousen-schools, they don’t adopt the national curriculum of Japan and they have different package of education. The problem is that they are suspected to tell children how Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il are great, Juche-sasang (an ideology of DPRK), and some distorted information. In fact, you can find the portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in the classroom and their textbooks are totally different from the ones that Japanese have. Some people regard connection with Chousen-Souren as a problem because Chousen-Souren is suspected to have something to do with kidnapping, illegal remittance (sending money illegally), spying, and other illegal activities. In addition, DPRK attacked South Korea in November 2010. Democratic Party of Japan, the party in power, was confused by this incident and yet reach conclusion; assist Chousen-school students or not.

     For all these reasons, there are number of people who are against assistance for Chousen-schools. Tooru Hashimoto, the Governor of Osaka prefecture made these following four suggestions to Chousen-schools if they want to be subsidized; 1)adopt Japanese curriculum, 2)enhance transparency in financial affair, 3)keep away from Chousen-Souren, 4)take away the portraits of Kim family. In other words he showed them two choices like freedom of ideology or money, and he told them they couldn’t have both of them.

     In my opinion, his argument is clear and I agree with him. If Chousen-schools want to keep their own education, they should do it all by themselves. If they adopt Japanese curriculum, they should be funded as other schools. Some people criticize him like education should be free from all political affairs, just support who wants to learn. But, budget is limited. Japanese government cannot spend on what doesn’t benefit Japanese people. What do you think about this issue? Is Hashimoto discriminating Chousen-schools? Let me hear your opinion.

p.s. I wonder how to call the chousen-koukyuu-gakkou. When I googled how they are called generally, I found these following names like North Korea funded school, pro-Pyongyang high school, and something. But finally I decided simply call them “Chousen-schools”

by Anonymous

Shiomi Maeda

Today I would like to introduce a book titled “Sabetsu to Nihonjin” – Discrimination and Japanese people” in English – published by Kakugawa, written by Hiromu Nonaka and Shin Sugok.

Mr. Nonaka was born and grew up as a Buraku child, while Ms. Shin, as you can guess by her name, is Zainichi Korean. Despite of their different status in society, there is something they share – the experience of unfair treatment due to what they were born with.

This book is very easy to read. 80% of the book is written in conversational style based on their experience of discrimination, with 20% of explanation to make it easier for readers to understand the background and history.

Among all the stories they tell, there is one story that shocked me the most. It is a story about 1923 Great Kanto earthquake and discrimination associated with it.

In the panic of the quake, there were many Koreans who were killed not by the quake, but by Japanese people.

In that time period, there were so many cases of thefts – there was a huge shortage of food and goods; people were struggling to survive after their properties were all broke down or lost; some people had stolen things from broken houses. (Maybe some had no choice but to do so against their will?) Japanese made all of these cases Zainichi’s fault. Japanese said “it’s no one but Zainichi who do such things.” And in the end, those who believe the story DID kill innocent Zainichi Koreans.

This story is not well-known particularly among the younger generation of Japan. But I believe this is the story we should tell from generation to generation.

This year, we had 311 – the Great East Japan earthquake. I haven’t heard any sad stories like the one above. But there might have been victims of discrimination even if no one was killed – we don’t know yet.

Earthquake is a tragedy – it can kill many people. Why do we make it more tragic by killing innocent people who survived the quake? We have to look back at the reality and rethink about it.

This untold tragedy of Great Kanto earthquake is just one of the stories discussed in the book. I really recommend this book since it provides many opportunities to reconsider the issue of discrimination against social minorities. If any of you would like to read further, you can buy the book online or at most of bookstores.

Nonaka, Hiromu, and Shin Sugok. Sabetsu to Nihonjin. Tokyo: Kakugawa Group Publishing, 2009. Print.

Sae Tamagawa

Japan annexed and colonized Korea in 1910. After that, a lot of Korean people were forcefully brought to Japan as labors from the Korean Peninsula. Japan made Korean people change their nationality to Japanese one, and they were even forced to change their name.

Japan made use of Korean people during the war; however, on losing the war, Japan took their Japanese nationality and forced them to go back to their country. What is worse, their country also tended not to accept them, so they confused where to go. I do not know whether Japanese government regarded as they are disposable, but they are not a robot, they are human like us. Nevertheless Japan changed Zainichi Korean’s life completely, and hurt them, Japan force them to go back after the thing went. Moreover, Zainichi Korean were ousted their franchise. As for franchise, there is no progress until now and not only Zainichi but also foreigner living in Japan do not have right to vote in Japan. Japan ignored Korean people’s human right completely, but Zainichi Korean did not just passively observe.

In April 1948, Monbu-sho decided to close school for North-Korean, and Zainichi Korean resisted fiercely against it. A lot of Zainichi Korean who participated to the resistance were arrested, and surprisingly, 16-year-old boy was killed in Osaka. This incident is called “Hanshin Kyoiku Tousou”.

Furthermore, Zainichi Korean resisted to a lot of unfair system that Japanese government forced them to obey, and insisted their right. As a result, the situation became better and better step by step. For example, All the Zainichi Krean people had to register their finger print despite they do not commit a crime. In the late 1980’s, anti- fingerprint movement became hot, and it came up as a diplomatic problem. Zainichi Korean did not give up, and registration of finger-print was amended finally. They were struggling in order to survive in Japan.

As I wrote above, what Japan has done to Zainichi Korean was unbelievably irrational. However we did not learn much about them in school as if the government hides the fact. If I did not learn about them voluntarily, I might not know exactly who they are. I said the situation is getting better now, but still, there is discrimination against them. It might be difficult to teach it at school, but it has to be taught. Otherwise, young generation will not have proper knowledge, and they may just discriminate Zainichi Korean because other people do so.

Shiori Miyake

Even today, some people think Japan is as a homogenous ethnic country but in reality, is it? We have the Okinawans, Ainus, Buraku, Zainichi and others as we learnt in class, and also many immigrants from foreign countries willing to move into Japan. Putting aside the argument of either a multicultural society is good or bad, as international population migration becomes more active and as the problems of ethnic minorities stand out, Japan may not keep its status quo. It is time for Japan to accept a diversity of ethnic groups inside and also coming from abroad.

First of all, what is a multicultural society? A multicultural society is said to be a society based on a multiculturalism principles, meaning a country consisting of multiple ethnic groups having their own culture and nationality valued, and coexistence is done. Now, I would like to look at the countries that are said to be a successful example and a model of a multicultural society; Canada and Australia.

Canada in its history, was a country consist of habitan (French immigrants) and Britain immigrants. Difference in language, culture and lifestyle has provoked a split in the country, so in order to maintain Canada; there was the need to unify the two big groups together and Canada installed multicultural policies.

ForAustralia, it is similar but they wanted to break away with the strong white supremacy they had and accepted Asian immigrants inside for integration with Asia. As a result, Australia had to assimilate the Asian immigrants they had accepted, and seek for multicultural measures. For both examples, the care for other ethnic minorities was only a by-product.

I only explained briefly, but Canada and Australia have accepted a diversity of ethnic groups inside their countries, partly concluding in their policies. However, to the question, “can Japan be like these two countries?”, the answer would be “no.” The circumstances for enact of policies and state configuration is different. There are points that could be helpful, but unlike Japan, both countries had multicultural policy clearly stated and developed by the government leading. Japanese government has long time not been able to dispel the homogenous principle attitude, and hasn’t established any measures even it has been over thirty years since massive influx of foreign people.

What I wanted to say in this blog post, is a simple thing; this is only one way of thinking, but Japan has to create its own model and method of a multicultural society. There are still prejudice and discrimination against non-Japanese ethnic groups inJapan, since it has been a closed community for a long time. However, there are already ethnic minorities, and also immigrants coming from abroad. Japan is in need to transfer from the state of ethnic groups “living in divided areas” to “coexistence,” and it is important for us Japanese to think of a way to create a better society for us all.

Miyake Shiori

As we know, there are US Armed Forces stationed in Okinawa, which refers to 75% of US military in Japan. Five years ago, in summer, I went to Okinawa with my friends for the school’s field trip, and had a chance to participate in a backstage tour of the Kadena Air Base, which was held about twice a month. This summer, I again went to Okinawa but the tour was not done anymore. So, I would like to show how it was, and hope this blog post can be a helpful piece of information to think about the base problem!

Kadena Air Base has two runways and said to possess more than two-hundred battle planes. Inside the military area was like a small town and people can live staying inside the base. The spaces are separated into military area and residence area, and I heard that there are approximately 20,000 people living. In the residence area, there are fast food chain stores, shopping malls, clubs and also universities.

In some parts of the area, the currency was in dollars and we were to communicate in English, so it was just like a town in America. As we entered a restaurant and there were many navy crews eating lunch. Just for sure, the food was “American size” and was definitely impossible to eat all. In the tour, we moved by car and the guide explained us about the facilities. The tour ended by going out the base, entering the museum of Okinawa postwar.

Seeing the news broadcasts, citizens of Okinawa are against the US military bases. This is because of the problems or negative effects caused by the existence of military bases; such as environmental concerns including water and air pollution, accidents and crimes caused by the soldiers, noise problem and so on. In the past,US military helicopter crashed at Okinawa International University, and many incidents such as rape and robbery, car accidents has occurred. However, because of the treaty between Japan and the United States, these incidents have not brought to any conclusion, or the criminal escaped from Japan and haven’t been punished. To say with the noise problem, I actually heard the noises made by the aircrafts during the tour and it was extreme; if I were to live close to the base, I can’t bear to stay.

It is unfair for only the people in Okinawa to bear a heavy burden and be the hosts to the US military forces. However, there is the fact that the US military base is creating economic effects, and I saw a community developed inside the base, having many people living their ordinary lives. There isn’t a effective or practical solution but the only thing that is clear, is that there needs to be a movement in this problem.

For additional information about the base,
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/kadena.htm

Jiro Okada

“What do you think in the lecture room?”

This is what I would like to consider on this blog post.

(I do not criticise on this post, I just want to have a consideration with questions.)

When people look at something, there is an aspect of it that the person glances. Also, every single person has her/his own perspectives, backgrounds, and interests. Then, how do they apply to the class that we are taking? I am, personally, quite curious about how other classmates of mine are looking at this class. There would be something we have not known though it must be quite beneficial and exciting.

This class, Japanese Society, gives a quite interesting spotlight on minorities in the Japanese society, and we can actually recognise them through the class with the rich knowledge provided in it. The issues already presented are; for example, Ainu; Burakumin; Hafu; and Japanese Peruvian. Likewise, it vividly draws attention and gives us the great opportunities to consider the issue related identity. What are the mostly treated in the class are the issues and the facts with full of sources of thinking. Those contents in the course strongly make me think about the issues both in and out of the classroom.

However, I sometimes consider like “So what? What should we think from just knowing their existence and issues?” We can know the issue, and we can understand the contents of the issue. Then, we can feel something struggling inside of ourselves.

So, what?

I have known the reality Ainu people faces.

I have understood that Okinawans has been marginalised from mainland.

I know it is obvious that the issues in the class are all quite controversial.

Likewise, it is obvious that those controversial issues cannot be solved in a day or week.

Thus, it leads to the question on me:

“For What?”

On the other hand, there is another question. In this class, we often consider about the issue of identity. We can consider that there are people who have troubled with there identities. The issue of identity is actually difficult to think. Even this is the concept which did not exist in Japan before, as it can be seen from the fact that there is no direct translation of the word ‘identity’ in Japanese language.

In this class, the issues of identity get attention. It must be quite worthy to study this issue. Even around the world, there are several places that provide the course related identity issue. Also, there are several people who have mixed identity.

Then, this is my question.

Is this for whom, in what way?

It must be quite meaningful for everyone. But, sometimes I wonder how I should contribute to the discussion because I, personally, do not have any of the obvious identity problems on myself. Is there no way to contribute the discussion not just only asking to somebody who has something inside of her/him?

As I mentioned first, I am not criticising. For both questions I mentioned, I have got my own answers as meanings for study these issues. I am enjoying the class every Wednesday, and this class is actually brilliant. I would simply like to know how our perspective towards the class could be cultivated, and it must be worth to share. Though it might be answered in each of blog post in issue by issue, how about sharing the idea about this whole course?

Masayuki Tanaka

In today’s multiethnic society, there are number of situations that people discriminate against someone. For example, we have learnt the facts of discrimination against Japanese-Peruvian, Okinawan, Ainu, Chinese and Zainichi Korean. But we have not studied why people discriminate. Although this is an extremely huge and fundamental question, I believe it is important to know the mechanism of discrimination and how to solve it for making Japan a discrimination-free society.

Discrimination can be classified in two ways. In one case, people do or say some discriminatory things on purpose. This is called ‘conscious discrimination’ because there is a certain intention to discriminate. For example, if parents tell their child, “Don’t go to that area! Many Burakumins are living,” this is conscious discrimination since the parents recognize that they are discriminating against someone (even if they are not feeling guilty).

In the other case, however, people often discriminate without recognition. This is called ‘unconscious discrimination.’ For instance, many Japanese people used to call an instant camera ‘bakachon-camera’ (which means even stupid Koreans can take pictures) without understanding its meaning. Although many of them were not trying to discriminate against Korean people, they eventually did. So this type of discrimination is called ‘unconscious discrimination.’

What makes people discriminate? To know its mechanism, I am going to give an example of ‘unconscious discrimination’ by showing a short scene of a film called Gentleman’s Agreement. This is a fiction movie which focuses on ethnic discrimination in the US society. A Catholic American journalist spends a couple of months in New York with his family, his mother and little son between his ex-wife, as Jewish to write about his first-hand experiences of anti-Semitism.

In this film, I would like you to pay attention to the scene when a woman said some words to a crying boy from 00:45. After you watch, I am going to explain how she unconsciously discriminated against Jewish people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH81iB8kyM8&feature=related

When Tommy, the journalist’s son who was also pretending to be a Jewish, said, “They (his friends) called me a dirty Jew. And a stinking Kike!,” Kathy, the journalist girlfriend, embraced him and replied, “It’s not true. It’s not true. You’re no more Jewish than I am. It’s just a horrible mistake.” Kathy was just trying to comfort Tommy, but she unconsciously gave Tommy a negative image about Jewish people. What this scene telling us is that people unconsciously discriminate against somebody without vicious intention. This type of discrimination is more serious than the conscious discrimination because the people do not recognize their words or behavior as discrimination.

How can we avoid it? ‘Conscious discrimination’ (discrimination on purpose) is easy to prevent if you have a sense of human right, but in the case of ‘unconscious discrimination,’ it is very hard to avoid because even a moral person often discriminate carelessly. It means even if you are not trying to discriminate against anybody, you might hurt someone. The solution is knowing discriminatory words and behavior. If you recognize certain words or behavior as discrimination, you will not use it. I think this is the only way to solve the mechanism of discrimination.

Consequently, there are two ways of discrimination: conscious discrimination and unconscious discrimination. In order to prevent them, we have to learn the mechanism of discrimination.

Kudo Tomofumi

It was a 2years ago when I heard a famous artist, Kazumasa Oda, was singing “Takeda no Komoriuta” that was born in Takeda area in Kyoto. It attracted me so much, but he told it has some story behind it. I immediately realized that this song must have been a “Buraku” song. At that time, I did not know that “Takeda” area exists in Kyoto and we can go there by JR.

“Takeda no Komoriuta” was a million hit song in 1970s, and many artists song it. However, at some point, this song have disappeared from the media, radio, and TV.  Do you remember the “Imjin River” which Kosuke song in Pacchigi! and the reason why it was not allowed, or hesitated to sing it in public? This was just because it was  a “Buraku” song. In 1969, Akaitori, a folk song band, song “Takeda no Komoriuta” and got a first prize in the Yamaha Music Contest, which made Akaitori famous afterwards. However, it was not its lyrics but melody that attracted many listeners. Actually, most people, even the member of Akaitori, did not know the meaning of the lyrics, and what was worse, few people could notice which “Takeda” area  this song represented. Once these uncertainties has got revealed, it was thrust into a taboo as a “Imjin River”.

I have learned about “Buraku” in my junior high school days, but it seemed a past story at all. I had thought liberation of Buraku movements have not solved “Buraku” problem, but recreated it, and that is why many broadcast station have imposed the voluntary regulation on broadcasting “Buraku” songs. However, almost all of the Buraku songs were self-explanations as a grief, anger. I believe that the images of “Buraku” is disappearing in a various societal change such a trend toward the nuclear family, but what we need to think most carefully is how to overcome the recreation of negative images, including “Buraku”.

“Takeda no Komoriuta” was not just a lullaby for baby, but one which awakes people who try to “sleep” pushing their countless experiences of discrimination away and trying to make those forgotten for good.  Its lyrics makes us notice that Japanese nursery rhyme cannot be represented only by the peaceful, innocent, and adorable ones like “Akatonbo”, “Edo no Komoriuta”. We should not forget  the grievous voices of young baby sitters who were too impoverished to study at school.

Here is a link of “Takeda no Komoriuta”.

Akaitori version:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ace5tJUnP4s

Original:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duX-s8tNo-M&feature=related