The Construction of Discourse on Identity Politics of Zainichi Korean

Abstract

  In this paper I will discuss the problem of Zainichi Korean, Korean living in Japan, which is an ethnic minority being in the situation which they cannot talk absolutely without using the other’s language. The concept of minority may be interpreted variously. But I want to emphasize a perspective in interpreting it that minority is not a concept formed by the self-expression of its members. That is, the name which minority people call themselves is not the one given by themselves in the case of Zainichi Korean. In the postwar Japanese society, Zainichi Koreans have been the existence which has the unique history, language, nationality, social class, gender and so on. However, Zainichi Koreans which do not have their own language have been forced to talk the story what the dominant Japanese and Koreans want to hear using the Japanese language which they have spoken in the everyday life. As a result the minority’s story has been composed of the knowledge and recognition of image that the dominant Japanese have thought as the ‘genuine’ Zainichi Korean. This has been the compulsion which has exploited the words from them perfectly.

  In this paper I will discuss the identity politics focusing on Zainichi Koreans who have been treated as a different minority from the migrant workers legally and politically and as a minority which has been alienated doubly such as ‘non-foreign but foreign people.’