Korean Japanese or Korean Residents in Japan?

[goldenboy_ge]

I believe I am Japanese. Maybe everyone agrees with me. But is it really true? What are the Japanese? According to Japan's nationality law, the Japanese are people who have Japanese nationality. Nationality is given when a person is naturalized or born from Japanese parents. The law defines people who are not Japanese as foreigners (Fukuoka p.2-3). So many people think that Japan is a unified country, though there are some groups which consist of neither of Japanese nor foreigners. Korean residents in Japan are a typical example, because one of my friends who is a Korean resident once told me that he didn't have the right to vote, not only in Korea but also in Japan. We can find that there is a barrier between Korean residents and Japanese. Therefore many people are arguing about this barrier.

Ken Hasegawa's letter, whose topic is also Korean residents in Japan, was published in the Mainichi Daily News on June 15th, 1994. He says in his letter to the editor, "Japan should declare all people born in Japan Japanese citizens."

For many years he thought that Korean residents in Japan were discriminated against. But now Hasegawa has come to think that his understanding was not completely right. The change of his opinion was caused by recent experiences. Some time ago Korean residents, whom he calls "pro-Pyongyang shock troops," rallied in Osaka, Tokyo and Nagoya to demand peaceful human rights, but few pictures were taken of the action. He thinks the reason was, "Many major news media in Japan are afraid of Chongryun and keep silent about the human rights violations committed by pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan."

From his letter, Hasegawa seems to believe that Japanese are too passive to argue against Koreans because of mistakes in the past. On the other hand, he says Chongryun or the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, created in 1955 by secret agents from North Korea for the purpose of swallowing up South Korea, is misinforming the public. For instance, many people believe that the origins of the Korean residents in Japan were Koreans who were forcibly brought in from the Korean Peninsula by Japanese for war purposes. But that is not true.

The fact is that most of them are economic immigrants and their descendants (Wakatsuki 132). Hasegawa says the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and Chongryun are misinforming people in order to keep Japanese in silence. From his point of view, he also refers to the suspicion of remittance from Japan to North Korea and the property of the ethnic schools because they haven't tried to promote the relationship between the two nations. He blames the passivity of Japanese indirectly and impudence of Koreans clearly.

And Hasegawa pays attention to the exodus of Chongryun Koreans who praise North Korea. Around 1960 a large number of the Korean residents in Japan moved to North Korea, but now they don't migrate there any more: they longed for their native country and wanted to return, but in reality it was harder for them to live there than in Japan. Chongryun heard the information and decided to stop migrating (Fukuoka 31-36). So it is certain that almost all the Korean residents in Japan are going to settle down for generations.

In the letter Hasegawa says, "Second-, third-, fourth-, and maybe fifth-generation Koreans in Japan?! Ridiculous!" Then he suggests Japan's nationality law should be revised to give Japanese citizenship to all people born in Japan. However, I cannot agree with his opinion entirely. His suggestion is against the human rights of minorities.

On some points I follow him. I also found that people misunderstand so many things about Korean residents. For example, the letter discusses the American fears of 'North Korean in Japan' or 'North Koreans communities in Japan.' This is not accurate. More than 90 percent of Koreans in Japan come from the Southern part of the Korean Peninsula." Not only Americans but also Japanese seem not to know that fact. As Hasegawa asserts, we are so passive that we don't try to seek the truth about them. And I can say that such ignorance has caused many problems between the two groups of people.

On another point, I guess Hasegawa's prediction that the Korean residents will settle down in Japan is right. For pro-Pyongyang Korean residents, North Korea can be a paradise in their mind. But the paradise is too strict to live in comfortably. Now they become aware that it is better to live in Japan for economic reasons. So for a few decades they are going to live in this small island country longing for North Korea. In the future there may be tenth-generation Koreans. I think such a situation is surely "ridiculous" rather than complicated

Considering these matters, Hasegawa's suggestion that we should revise the law to regard everyone born in Japan as a Japanese citizen seems to be very reasonable. If the revision is made, the conflict between these two nations may eventually disappear, and the situation may be uncomplicated for Japanese people. However, still I insist: his suggestion is not good, because it involves a danger of violating Korean's human rights.

As he says, now the Korean residents have stopped migrating to North Korea. But it is not because they want to live in Japan willingly, but because they have to live here for some necessary reasons. So they may want to be Koreans, not Japanese. I Kyong Je, who is director of an ethnic educational circle called Mukuge no Kai, says, "We have insisted that the Japanese Government should revise the law which forces foreigners to register fingerprints. And if it is said that such problems of human rights are based on the restriction of nationality, I want the nationality. But, because of pride, I get angry if I have to get Japanese nationality bowing down to the government. On the other hand, I also get mad when we are forced to take the nationality" (Fukuoka 29). Therefore when the revision of Japan's nationality law is carried, the Korean residents in Japan must feet that their racial traits are oppressed. There is no one who can distort other's ethos. I dare say Hasegawa's opinion is ethnocentrism.

Nor can I agree with his general standpoint. He talks with prejudice. For instance the letter says, "About the ethnic schools run by Chongryun, their purpose is to instill in pupils the worship of Kim Il Sung, the war criminal. They've done nothing to promote the Korean language or culture among their Japanese neighbors."

Admitting that his argument is almost right and the Korean residents are closed to Japan, Japanese are also closed to them, and what is worse, discriminate against them. Recently a girl attending a Korean ethnic school was attacked, and her school uniform was cut by a Japanese youth. The matter shocked many people because it clearly showed that discrimination against Koreans surely exists now in Japan. And for another example, we do not call them "Korean Japanese" but "Korean residents in Japan." Originally, "resident" means who lives in one nation for some period. So the situation that Japanese still call them "Korean residents" may be an implication of discrimination. Through these examples, Hasegawa's point of view is too convenient for Japanese.

"Japan's nationality law must be revised. Japan should declare all people born in Japan as Japanese citizens."

Here, I rewrite Hasegawa's suggestion: "Japan's nationality law must be revised. Japan should give all foreigners born in Japan rights to choose their nationality." Japan needs to adopt a system allowing descendants of the Korean residents in Japan to be Japanese citizens without formalities of naturalization, otherwise the conditions in the future will be so complicated. But we should never force them to be Japanese. We have to seek the way of coexistence, not the way of assimilation. The most necessary and important thing is that we recognize the difference between these two nations, while we are aware that now we must be able to live together.

I hope that discrimination I have discussed above will soon disappear, and that it will become natural to say not "the Korean residents in Japan" but simply the "Korean Japanese."

by Makiko Gotoh

[goldenboy_ge]

Nationality is given when a person is naturalized or born from Japanese parents. The law defines people who are not Japanese as foreigners (Fukuoka p.2-3).

^Well, that means for example, my "wife" and I are neither J's, but our "child" is born in Japan. However he wont get the Japanese nationality because we aren't Japanese....

Anyone here has a child who was born in Japan??

[Samurai_Jerk]

Nationality is given when a person is naturalized or born from Japanese parents. The law defines people who are not Japanese as foreigners (Fukuoka p.2-3).

^Well, that means for example, my "wife" and I are neither J's, but our "child" is born in Japan. However he wont get the Japanese nationality because we aren't Japanese....

Anyone here has a child who was born in Japan??

If you and/or your theoretical wife were citizens of Japan then your kid would legally be Japanese. If you were only residents then your kid wouldn't be. Isn't that true of most countries?

[Mulboyne]

[goldenboy_ge]

If you and/or your theoretical wife were citizens of Japan then your kid would legally be Japanese. If you were only residents then your kid wouldn't be. Isn't that true of most countries?

If you and/or your theoretical wife were citizens of Japan then your kid would legally be Japanese. << yes, exactly.If you were only residents then your kid wouldn't be << correct Isn't that true of most countries? << Well if ur parents aren't Americans, let's say French and the child will be borned in the states, then it will become an American citizen, no matter what nationality the parents have. The same thing goes in Germany, France, Spain, Greece and the whole Western countries with maybe a few exceptions.