Koreans in Japan are a barely known minority, not only in the West but also within Japan itself. This pioneering study analyses these relations in the context of the particular conditions and constraints that Koreans face in Japanese society.
The contributors cover a wide range of topics, including: the legal and social status of Koreans in Japan; the history of Korean colonial displacement and postcolonial division during the Cold War; ethnic education; and women's self-expression. These studies serve to reveal the highly resilient and diverse reality of this minority group, whilst simultaneously highlighting the fact that - despite recent improvement - legal, social and economic constraints continue to exist in their lives.
Introduction: On Resident Koreans in Japan 1. Politics of Legal Status: The Equation of Nationality with Ethnonational Identity 2. On the North Korean Homeland of Koreans in Japan 3. Political Correctness, Postcoloniality and Self-Representation of 'Koreanness' in Japan 4. Mothers write Ikaino 5. Reading Against the Bourgeois and National Bodies: Transcultural Body-Politics in Yu Miri's Textual Representation 6. Cultural Identity in the Work of Yi Yang-ji 7. Korean Ethnic Schools in Occupied Japan, 1945-52 8. Korean Children, Textbooks and Educational Practices in Japanese Primary Schools 9. Kids Between Nations: Ethnic Classes in the Construction of Korean Identities in Japanese Public Schools 10. Ordinary (Korean) Japanese
Biography
Ryang, Sonia
'Its publication will stimulate further detailed research into Zainichi Korean issues and a steady flow of publications in this very important field.' - Social Science Japan Journal
'Koreans in Japan is well (re)presented and will be an invaluable source for students of marginalized peoples and of Japanese body politic.' - Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
