Koreans in Japan: Social, Economic and Citizenship issues Part 3

One other eminent area in regards of discrimination of the Koreans are the employment sector. There is common for Japanese firms to be reluctant to employ people with Korean background. This attitude forces many to work in low skilled areas, such as labourers, pachinko trades and self service jobs. There has however been a shift from totally exclude non Japanese in the civil service sector to now be opened to non nationals. The opening is on the other hand marginal when only a limited number of municipalities have positions of managements available for non nationals, and the only way to reach a position of higher responsibility is to become naturalised Japanese. The employment rate gap between ethnic Japanese and Koreans are on the decrease much due to a change of procedures when applying for jobs took place in 1997. Now all applicants must use the same forms that do not include any information about registry address, family’s educational background and so forth in order to prevent discrimination against employment seekers due to their backgrounds.

Koreans often face discrimination in choice of housing when owners frequently deny Koreans contracts and openly demand tenants to Japanese. This is controlled by insist on applicants to show documents of their residential status. This severely limits the number of choices the Koreans minority have on the housing market. In order to bypass this discrimination and suspicion of being Korean many take on Japanese names and try to slip through the net.

Marriage and discrimination is also to a good deal spread throughout Japan. Despite the fact that mixed marriages between Koreans and Japanese is on the increase there is a huge gender unbalance when Korean women marry Japanese twice as often in comparison with the Korean men indicating that it may be less socially accepted for Korean men to intermarriage. The opposition against mixed marriages can also be explained by Japanese obsession of preserving the bloodlines. The children of these mixed marriages do also in turn their back on their Korean background at the age of 22 when they have to make a decision of keeping their Korean citizenship and possible face discrimination or becoming Japanese. Sugimoto describes a major shift in attitude among the younger generations of Koreans who quite often belong to the fourth generation and do not agree with with older generations conservative view of that Koreans should only marry Koreans. And that after 1970 mixed marriages are more common than fully Korean marriages.

Traditionally Korean education and educational institution have been discriminated against in Japan, but at present Korean school children have the right to obtain ethnic Korean education in order to preserve and strengthen their national identity. But since the government in 1979 ratified the human rights covenants and enacted the fundamental rights law in 1993, and the commence of the human rights awareness campaign for the Decade of the human rights education (1995-2004) minority rights have improved to a great deal. Areas that hold large numbers of Koreans to actively promote Korean education intuitions together with parents and teachers. These educational institutions gives the children an opportunity to learn and nurture the Korean language, culture and customs in a non discriminating environment. These type of education is said to improve Korean children’s self esteem and feel pride of being Korean. It is also common in Korean areas of residence to organise Korean Children Associations to promote Korean ethnicity and hold human rights awareness classes in the community. Although much has been done in terms of improving education for the Koreans there is still numerous of obstacles in the society. Graduates from ethnic Koreans schools do not aquire any rights to be allowed entry to Japanese universities. The reason for this are that the Korean schools are classified as only vocational schools by the Ministry of Education and therefore the students can not meet the requirements. The ministry further explains that ethnic schools focus on matters outside the specific curricula such as Korean culture, language, and history and therefore fail meet the basic needs of University entry. The irony of it all is if a Korean student from high school graduate from Korea wishes to study at a Japanese university he can receive entry as an international student, but if he on the other hand moves permanently to Japan and completes his high school degree in a Korean school he will be denied entry.

Koreans in Japan: Social, Economic and Citizenship issues Part 2

Korean nationals was made Japanese citizens during the Japanese annexation of Korea and is the only time Japans leaders have gone away from the beliefs that one can only become citizen through blood linage. But due to Japans loss in the WWII the Japanese government ordered in 1947 all Koreans remaining in Japan to be register as foreign residents and within five years they were stripped basic rights, legal status and nationality to become second class citizens some thing that still today remain in progress.
History

Under Japanese rule, Koreans were made Japanese citizens, forced to learn the Japanese language, even take Japanese names. During World War II, many Koreans were brought to Japan as a source of cheap labour in the mining, construction, and shipbuilding industries. Kashiwazaki describes that soon after the end of Japanese occupation all rights previously held were dismissed and in the years between 1947 and 1952 the immigration control system known as the Alien Registration Ordinance came into action which treated the Koreans as foreigners in Japan. In 1949 a government report was released that stated that “undesirable foreigners” who the Koreans were that failed to comply with the new law, no matter how long they had remained in Japan, and it was made legal for Japanese authorities to put in use the “repatriation” of anyone who still held Japanese citizenship.

Japan had during the occupation of Korea systematically assimilated the Koreans into Japanese society by neglecting their choice of living. As the Japanese in general did not have any higher thoughts of the Korean they considered them as a second-rate people and it was noted by the a Ministry report that the Koreans that came to Japan were mainly low-class farmers, unskilled labourers, illiterate, and not able to speak Japanese, that they were feral and enjoyed fighting, and was criminal. As regular dispute between Koreans and Japanese occurred and was caused by a number of reasons including alcohol intake, ethnic differences, financial disadvantages, general misunderstandings, and even love.

Japan regained its sovereignty when the peace treaty of 1951 was signed in order to end six years of occupation. Japan could now start working on its own domestic affairs by itself and one of the first questions to be risen was the position of the Koreans in Japan. Debates went on for some years without any of the included delegates being able to reach an agreement or solution and in October 1953 the negotiations was left undecided and closed down without anything being made to change the Koreans legal status.

There was however major changes in the mid 1960´s when the attitude and view shifted from seeing the Koreans as temporary and a realization of their permanency began to grow, and attempts were made to include the Koreans more into the society, but not by good will but mainly for the reason that they were a security issue. Further changes introduced in 1980s and 90s gave the Koreans increased rights held by permanent resident aliens, including access to public housing, housing loans, childcare allowances, pension and health care plans. In 1991 a new system came into order that placed all the permanent residents under the “special treatment residence” that was allowed more rights and protection. Other reforms included the alien registration system and fingerprinting was abolished and other forms identity measures was introduced. Present situation

One major issue for the Koreans of today is the identity crisis they may suffer from when being different but yet the same when growing up as a Korean in Japan. The majority of the Koreans living in Japan today do not speak their mother tongue anymore which indicates of a decline in the preservation of the Korean culture as whole. This is much due to educational factors like schools and exposure to the language and it is renowned that only some 20% percents of the Korean school children attend Korean schools today. There are also no possibilities to seek or receive government support to hold education in Korean language. The Japanese government has historically in fact actively worked against separate Korean ethnic education. One other big factor of troubles maintaining the Korean identity for Koreans is the reluctances among them to exploit their Korean names of fear of being singled out and discriminated against. One eminent example of such discrimination is a case from 1970 when a young Korean was dismissed by the Hitachi cooperation after making his Korean ethnicity exposed. The Korean man in turn seceded to take the cooperation into court and the trial included 22 hearings and lasted over three years. It was claimed by Hitachi that he was dismissed from his position on the grounds that he was not trustworthy when hiding his Korean ethnicity and not for being Korean.
Wagatsuma describes several of the reasons that shape the negative self image of young Koreans by neglecting their own Korean heritage. These reasons and factors of discrimination include the following:

(1) Social discrimination and prejudice against Koreans and negative stereotyping by the Japanese; (2) an unfavourable reality among the Koreans, in consequence of existing social injustice, that is used to justify further prejudice and discrimination; (3) Japanization and de-Koreanisation of those Koreans born and raised in Japan; and (4) a Japanese citizenship based upon jus sanguinis.

There are further discrimination in several areas such as education, employment, marriage, and, housing discrimination. In terms of education most young Koreans use Japanese names and attend Japanese schools and therefore pass as ethnic Japanese whilst receiving their education in the Japanese language. Students do often keep their real ethnicity hidden of fear of being discriminated when schools often generate pessimistic standpoint towards Koreans. In order to avoid such discrimination some students go to ethnic Koreans schools which are mainly financed by Soren. The main consequence of attending ethnic schools is that they are not acknowledged and do not pass as legitime education institutions and graduates from them are not able to enter Japanese colleges, or receive any credits or recognitions of their academic records from the Korean schools.

Koreans in Japan: Social, Economic and Citizenship issues Part 1

Introduction
Japans Korean minority consists of an estimated population of one million at present and consists of the ethnic Korean minority that currently is residing in Japan. Most of these Koreans came to Japan by a migration that occurred several generations ago. The most political correct Japanese term for these Koreans is Zainichi Korean, but in South Korea they are known by Jaeil Dongpo.

The history of the Koreans in modern time begins as late as 75 years ago in contrast to some of Japans other historical minorities, Ainu, Burkumin, or the Okinawans to mention a few. The large numbers of Koreans in today’s Japan is the effect of the Japanese invasion and colonisation of Korean peninsula in 1910. What followed was a 36 years long total exploitation of Korean recourses and domination of their domestic politics. In reaction large numbers of Koreans settled in Japan with Japanese government encouragement and approval in order to fill labour shortages due to the wars against China and the US. The first Koreans in Japan arrived as students in the beginning of the century and did at the time before the occupation of Korea number less than 1,000 persons. In the end of 1945 the numbers of Koreans had risen to over two million, one hundred thousand.

When Korea was liberated by the allied with the defeat of Japan in World War II the numbers of Koreans was decimated down to 650,000 within a year and these 650,000 individuals are what were to build the present day Korean minority.