77

Problems of the Korean

Community in Japan

Oh Chon-hae

79

The Present Strength of Korean in Japan

1. Historical Background

The number of Korean residents in Japan, as of March 1979, is 668,000, which means 85% of the total alien population in Japan. Seventy-five years ago, in 1905, that figure was 303, made up mainly of pro-Japanese politicians and students from Korea. Korean foreign affairs came from under Japan's formal control in 1905 and the annexation of Korea followed in 1910. That was the beginning of the complete colonization of Korea. With the forced registration of agriculture lands, and the policy of intensified race production for Japan, the Japanese government quickly forced many of the Korean farmers off their farmland and they began a sort of rootless existence. The rapid industrialization of Japan, especially centered a round First World War, called for an increase of the labor force. This situation demanded the intensive recruitment of "cheap" labor from Korea to Japan to be used in mines, construction works, steel mills and shipbuilding yards. This "forced labor" was eventually esculated to the conscription of Koreans into industries as well as into military services.

The number of Koreans in 1917 was just over 10,000 but it increased to 300,000 in 1930 and 1 million in 1940. When Second World War ended in 1945 the Koreans in Japan numbered an astonishing 2,400,000.

The end of the war meant an emancipation of Koreans from the colonial rule of Japan. Many of the Koreans quickly returned to their motherland but what waited them was a tragic division of Korea and the power struggle of the United States and Soviet Russia over their country. Approximately 600,000 Koreans decided to remain in Japan.

This is a very sketchy background of the Koreans in Japan. It is important to remember that the existence of Koreans in Japan has a close connection with the history of the Japanese colonialism and its expansion as well as the defeat of Japan in the World War II.

80

2. The Problems of Koreans in Japan

Japan is divided into 47 administrative districts and every one of them have some Korean residents. The concentration of Koreans, however, is in urban industrial areas of Tokyo, Osaka, Aichi, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures. The total number of Koreans in these five areas stands around 430,000, approximately 65% of the total Korean population in Japan. The reason for this concentration, in highly urbanized areas, is due to jobs available to Koreans.

It is also important to note that 85% of the Koreans in Japan are made up of second and third generations, such as I am, born and raised in Japan.

The tragic division of Korea into two parts has clearly reflected on the life of Koreans in Japan. Thus the Korean community, to, is divided into two main organizations, Chosoren and Mindan, one pro-South and the other pro-North Korea organization, each militantly opposed to the other.

The Koreans living in Japan, even today, face various social, economic and legal restriction, and discrimination by the society as a whole, as well as in government policies. Let me briefly point out some of them.

A. The legal status for Koreans is roughly divided into five categories: an "agreed" permanent resident; a general permanent resident; the "26-26 Clause" resident; a special status and a designated resident. It is possible that even within a family, one member has one certain status and another member with a different status. Koreans are under the same registration law as any other non-Japanese, but they are also subject to a possible expulsion under special regulations.

B. One aspect of the economic life of Koreans can be seen in business enterprises owned by Koreans in Japan. Over half of them are in scrap metalwork, entertainment and restaurant, operations, chemical work, such as vinyl and plastic production, and rubber products. Most of them are in very small scale. The biggest problem of these businesses

81

is the financing. A Japanese national, financing with a low interest but Koreans are not entitled to that program. Thus, a Korean businessman tends to rely on a private, small-scale, high-interest loan, often facing a high risk.

C. Another problem we face is the matter of social security. Osaka city, where I live, has a better social security program than many cities in Japan. Even there Koreans are entitled to only about a half of the benefits. There is no benefit, for example, for Koreans in terms of old age, disability, dependent child, war-dead survivor compensations, and others. Last year the Japanese government decided to promote the International Human Rights Charter, and stressed to revise the social security so that non-Japanese residents can receive some benefits as Japanese nationals.

D. As we look into the situation in the Japanese society as a whole, we find numerous incidents and phenomenon of social discrimination. The out-standing one among them is the matter of housing. The refusal to rent to Koreans is an everyday affair as a Korean searches for a place to live. In this connection, however, it is worth noting that the public Housing Authority has done away with the clause excluding Koreans from applying to public housing programs effective April 1, this year.

E. We must consider the matter of education because this is one of the most urgent issues for Koreans in Japan. There are at this point, 11 schools (3 primary, 4 junior high and 4 senior high schools) for Koreans connected with the Mindan and 145 Chosoren-connected schools, including a college. The Ministry of Education for a full accreditation does not recognize most of these schools. This means that a graduate of these schools is not entitled to take an entrance examination to a university or a college. There are some exceptions, initiated by some of the private schools, but in general, Koreans are at a great disadvantage in terms of education if they insist on the right to ethnic education. We often come across a school, mainly private, where a Korean

82

is refused admittance or charged an enormous amount of fees. There is no protection for ethnic education in Japan by the government. The Korean High School of Kyoto, for example, decided on a relocation and a new construction plan as far back as 1960. Every time a piece of land was purchased for the plan, neighborhood people started an opposition campaign. After 19 years of strenuous effort for relocation, the school finally gave up the idea and constructed a new building on the old site, a very small and inadequate area for a school.

3. The Issue of Employment

Let me focus our attention to the issue of employment. The section 23 of the International Human Rights Charter stresses the right to labor and for a fair and free choice of employment. A similar expression is also found in the Japanese Constitution. But in reality, opportunities for Koreans to find employment in public organizations or in general Japanese business enterprises, whether large or small are extremely restricted and limited. I may say that just about every Korean seeking employment had an experience of being refused. For us the wall of employment is tall and thick and sturdy. We feel it as early as the time we are ready to graduate from junior or senior high school. To hear a guidance teacher in high school saying to us, "It is no use applying for that school because you are a Korean," or ' 'You should consult your own parents about a job since you are a Korean" is a common experience among us. Even a person with straight-A grades throughout his/her schooling is often unable to find a desirable job and end up driving a truck or working as a day laborer. Or else he may seek employment in business operated by fellow Korean, such as bars, restaurants and pinball machine shops. There are very rare exceptions but availability of jobs in public offices is close to nil. Among the Koreans employed, the number is 150,000, 23% of the total. The rest have no regular employment. It is noticeable that the construction and other

83

industrial work take up 31%, followed by trades, secondhand item sale and other sales work (20%), clerical work (14%), simple labor (11%), etc.

As we see here, employment is a serious problem for Koreans in Japan. Even when a job is available, an employer may force a Korean employee to use a Japanese name, or in some extreme cases for a naturalization as a condition for employment.

4. The Issue of Education

As mentioned above (E), under the misunderstanding and oppression of the Japanese people and the Japanese authorities concerning ethnic education, most 2nd and 3rd generation Korean children attend Japanese schools and are educated as Japanese. Because of that, many of the Korean children do not know who they are, having no opportunity to find their own identity. On top of that, from the social structural & mental discrimination of Japanese, Korean children lose confidence in themselves & become self-recriminating and anti-social, becoming delinquent and violent. Denied of any chance to learn the beauty of their culture through ethnic education, teased and attacked by Japanese, there are even cases of young Koreans committing suicide. In one case near Tokyo, the Japanese school still refuses to admit any responsibility for the harsh discrimination among the students, which led to the suicide of a Korean junior high school student.

Conclusion

After this, then, with what kind of policies aimed at Korean will the Japanese government handle the Koreans in Japan? In a word, every effort is being made to produce a situation where in the future we have to naturalize as Japanese. To have several hundred thousand Koreans residing in Japan as foreigners is seen to work against the benefit of Japan in many ways. They would prefer to give us Koreans the lesser rights before we have gained a grasp of

84

our ethnicity and become rounded persons pressing for rightful ethnic privileges. That is making a people without any historical ethnic consciousness or resistance. Or, on the other hand, those Koreans displeasing to Japanese law (criminal offenders) or society (welfare dependents) they deport from Japan. They encouraged the return of 100,000 Koreans to North Korea since 1959 on "humanitarian" grounds, though none have family in North Korea.

With regard to this situation, what attitude is shown by the Korean government toward Koreans in Japan? The approach until the 1960's was to ignore them and leave them on their own. In 1965, the Korean and Japanese governments made a treaty normalizing relationships. The making of this treaty was the first step of a second Japanese economic invasion into Korea. And with the purpose of receiving economic aid from Japan, the Korean government stated in line with the Japanese viewpoint that the fate of the Koreans in Japan is to be naturalized, and did nothing to guard the many basic rights of Koreans in Japan. More than that, Koreans in Japan have been used in many ways for the self-interest of the dictatorial regimes of Korea. The Korean governments, in turn, are giving nothing more than fear and despair and rejection to the masses of their fellow-countrymen. We may live in Japan but we are put under the control of the Korean government.

____________________

Taken from Praxis No. 1, 1981.