Japan-born Koreans live in limbo (original) (raw)

World|Japan-born Koreans live in limbo

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/02/news/japanborn-koreans-live-in-limbo.html

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April 2, 2005

TOKYO — Chung Hyang Gyun's news conference was a sight seldom seen in Japan, the raw anger written across her face, the fury in her voice and words, the palpable feeling that these last words would somehow redeem the futility of her actions.

"I want to tell people all over the world that they shouldn't come to Japan to work," Chung said in perfect Japanese, befitting someone who has lived only in Japan. "Being a worker in Japan is no different from being a robot."

After a decade-long battle, the Supreme Court ruled recently that Chung, the daughter of a Japanese woman and a South Korean man, who was born in Japan and has lived all her life here, could not take the test to become a supervisor at a public health center because she was a foreigner.

"I have no tears to shed," said Chung, a 55-year-old nurse. "I can only laugh."

Chung is what the Japanese call a "Zainichi," a term that literally means "to stay in Japan," but that is usually shorthand for Koreans who came here during Japan's colonial rule, and their descendants. Considered outsiders both in Japan and on the Korean peninsula, they have, over the years, adopted different ways of living in Japan.

Japan has softened its attitudes toward the Zainichi, and many have become citizens and taken Japanese names. Others have taken citizenship, but kept their Korean names. Others, like Chung, have taken neither citizenship nor name. Disagreements exist, even within families.

Reaction to the court's ruling - that local governments can bar "foreigners" from holding official positions where they exercise "government power" - was split along political lines. Liberals said an aging Japan with a shrinking work force would lose by shutting out people like Chung, who could hardly be considered a "foreigner." Conservatives said foreigners like Chung should simply become Japanese citizens.

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