JAPAN: For Ethnic Koreans, A Small Step Forward in Equality

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 3 1997 (IPS) - When Chae Don Ja recently passed a test and qualified for a job in a municipal government, she became one among the first three Korean residents in Japan to do so.

“I am thrilled,” Chae, a third-generation South Korean woman, told a crowd of reporters in the municipality of Kawasaki. “I have been preparing for the tests since graduating from school in March.”

Chae’s success in landing a clerical position is a landmark in the struggle for equality among ethnic Koreans, Japan’s largest minority now numbering around 600,000.

For decades, ethnic Koreans — those forcibly brought to Japan as labourers when the Korean peninsula was under Japanese rule in the early fifties or those who came in search of better fortunes — have endured discrimination. Since they are not viewed as full- blooded Japanese, they are shunned in mainstream society.

“We have fought since the early seventies for employment in local governments. It has taken us more than 20 years to make some headway,” said Kim Su Il of the National Consul for Combating Discrimination against Ethnic People in Kanagawa, a grassroots organisation based in the southeast Tokyo.

A bustling city of 500,000, Kawasaki has some 10,000 Korean residents, of which 7,000 are second and third generation Koreans. Born and raised in Japan, these young people speak no Korean and have few ties with the Korean peninsula, but they are not fully accepted in Japanese society.

The Ministry of Justice says there are 1.36 million foreign residents in Japan at the end of 1995, or slightly over 1 percent of the total population. Koreans make up half of the non-Japanese population and the Chinese, 16 percent.

Japanese laws do not ban the hiring of foreign nationals in local governments. But using a 1953 national decree that views the hiring of non-Japanese as public servants as a risk for national, the central government has long applied silent pressure against employing non-Japanese.

“The biggest problem has been the central government that has frowned upon any move by Kawasaki to employ foreigners,” confirmed Takao Yamada, in charge of human rights protection at Kawasaki local government.

After Kawasaki’s success, three other prefectures have followed suit and hired Korean residents. But the jobs available to them are limited.

For instance, they are not allowed in into the police force and in the education sector. They have no guarantee of ever becoming eligible for executive posts, another reflection of how Japan keeps its doors closed to outsiders.

“Hiring foreigners for regular public-sector work and promoting them to managerial positions would mean allowing them to rule Japanese people,” argued Shiro Odamura, a chancellor at Takushoku University and a former government official.

Ethnic Koreans born in Japan can seek Japanese nationality, but the naturalisation process is a traumatic experience for many, made worse by the bitter history between the two countries.

Among others, Japanese laws require applicants to prove how well he or she has assimilated into Japan, a clause that often forces Koreans to adopt Japanese names.

The Justice Ministry explains that these stipulations are meant to ensure the smooth assimilation of foreign nationals into Japanese society.

But this stirs burning resentment among the Koreans. “This practice alone brings back loathsome memories for Koreans who recall how Japanese authorities enforced the use of Japanese names on the Korean peninsula,” explains Kim.

In many cases, ethnic Koreans adopt Japanese names in order to secure naturalisation and then revert to their original Korean names after going through the process.

Memories of bitter Japanese rule, which lasted from 1910 to 1945 on the Korean peninsula, have coloured present-day ties between Japanese and Koreans. After Japan lost in the Pacific War, Tokyo stripped Korean residents of Japanese nationality. Koreans were automatically given Korean citizenship.

Relations are not helped by the fact through its history, Japan has harboured a suspicion of foreigners. For instance, from the 16th to the 19th centuries it had tried to close its doors outsiders in order to prevent inroads by Christian missionaries.

Analysts say many Japanese find it hard to understand why ethnic Koreans want to be considered Japanese but refuse to adopt Japanese names, for instance. On the other hand, ethnic Koreans say they want to preserve their identity but believe Japan is their only home.

“There is a certain pride in holding on to Korean nationality despite the fact that second and third generation Korean residents are Japanese in their outlook and behavior,” said Kim. “This is their way of preserving their identity and protecting their rights to their culture.”

The small victories that a few Koreans have had in landing jobs in municipal governments are important, but this remains a long way off from extending equality to minorities in Japan.

Acquiring Japanese nationality is an even more difficult endeavour, far different from the situation in countries like the United States which offer nationality to people born there. Calls for easier access to Japanese nationality will be presented by non- governmental groups to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Kim says.

“Many Koreans want naturalisation in Japan but also want to protect their racial identity through their own names and the development of laws that protect their right to language and culture,” he explained.

Yamada says Japan’s human rights record in this area needs to be improved. “We have to discuss ways of helping Koreans and other minorities acquire more responsible places in Japanese society,” he explained.

But undoubtedly, such a process will be long and painful for a country that mostly views itself as a homogenous society and has a long tradition of suspicion against outsiders.