Abstract
This study aimed to uncover the social reality experienced by my family members (Zainichi Korean; Korean residents in Japan) by analyzing the construction of their narratives as a routine interactive activity and how they position themselves within these narratives.
In the narrative, my father introduces a frightening “hypothetical scenario” of needing to flee Japan owing to the enactment of the Specially Designated Secrets Act, which means to return the country to the pre–war setting, drawing parallels with the Holocaust under the Nazis. In this way, the narrative that certain Zainichi Korean families contemplated fleeing from Japan as a last resort reflects that they harbored critical views of the Japanese society, especially amidst its rightward shift and rise in xenophobia, and they felt routinely threatened with exclusion.
Moreover, differences in the ethnic identities of the three Zainichi Korean participants are revealed in the narrative: what these three identities had in common is that they were contrary to the dominant discourse in the Zainichi Korean society. These identities were articulated through conversations among minorities within the intimate family sphere, suggesting that this study served to rediscover the “self” liberated from the constraints of ethnic identity.
