Cultural Diversity in Japan - Quiz 2 Study Guide

Great Kanto Earthquake

A major earthquake in 1923 followed by a massacre where Koreans and Chinese were targeted due to pronunciation difficulties.

"Ju go yen go jussen [15 yen 50 sen]" or "Gagigugego"

People were asked to pronounce these phrases to identify Koreans and Chinese during the Great Kanto Earthquake massacre.

Zainichi

A term referring to Koreans in Japan, who faced discrimination and were massacred after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.

The earthquake and the ensuing mass murder

For Korean population it is the equivalent of slavery for African Americans and the Shoah [the Holocaust] for Jewish Americans.

Shifting Identity (linguistic, residency)

By the mid-1930s, nearly a third of Koreans were born in Japan, leading to increased Japanese language proficiency and desire for permanent residency.

Japanization efforts in the late 1930s through 1940s

By the 1940s, assimilation increased due to Japanization efforts, influencing language, names, schools, food, and clothing.

Koh Hansu

Characters in Pachinko set in 1923 Yokohama.

Tutoring at wealthy American family

Koh Hansu's occupation in Pachinko.

Book-keeping for his boss Ryoichi

Hansu's father occupation in Pachinko

Myth of homogeneity

Postwar Japanese society broke from the prewar period, rejecting the colonial experience.

Postwar period

The war as the nightmare that was to be forgotten.

Japanese society after losing its empire

After the loss of its empire, postwar Japanese society became less ethnically diverse.

Foreigner [gaijin]

Referred almost exclusively to white Euro- Americans [hakujin].

Hakujin

The small population of these individuals came to stand for the postwar Japanese perception and recognition of ethnonational otherness, and their relative rarity underscored the monoethnic worldview.

Homogeneous society

Prewar Japanization and postwar monoethnic ideology both presumed this type of society.

Japanese homogeneity

The ideal extended well beyond the ethnic dimension to encompass social inequality and regional diversity.

Tokyo

The center and standard of popular national culture.

Rapid economic growth in the 1960s

Ethnic Koreans disappeared from Japanese popular consciousness during this period.

Bullied at schools and excluded from mainstream employment

Ethnic Koreans lived in a society that disrecognized them due to this.

Invisibility and silence 1950s-1960s

Through separation, segregation and isolation.

Invisibility and silence 1970s

Through indistinguishability of ethnic Koreans and Japanese after the integration of minorities.

1970s

Non-Japanese ethnics became indistinguishable from ethnic Japanese.

Ethnonational differences in Japanese culture

Manifested themselves in everyday life, perhaps most viscerally in speech and food, in the colonial period.

Passing

The second-generation Zainichi by the 1970s were in no obvious ways distinguishable from ethnic Japanese people.

Invisibility

The majority’s inability to differentiate, but is the minority’s ability to pass as “normal Japanese”.

Passing

The presentation and representation of the self to attain and obtain the status that one desires in defiance of that which is denied.

Anxiety from passing

The threat of exposure and the ethical conundrum of leading a life of deception.

koseki [household registry]

Expressed in everyday life as Korean name and Korean ancestry in this document.

Passing

Requirement of the ideal of ordinariness or norlmanless [futsū].

Zainichi

Ethnic Koreans born and brought up in Japan

Nesting Instinct

A deep desire to settle down, often clashing with the impulse to uproot oneself.

Nationalism

Beliefs in shared genealogy, geography, history, and culture, often fostered by governments to enhance allegiance.

Deracinate

To remove or separate from one's native land or culture.

Zainichi

Refers to Koreans residing in Japan, implying impermanence.

Chösen

The common colonial-era term for Korea, later associated with North Korea.

Kankoku

The South Korean term for (South) Korea

Han'gul

The script used for the Korean language, used to neutralize the split between the two Koreas.

Korean Japanese

A term identifying as both Korean and Japanese.

Received Narratives

Vilifying Japanese colonialism and racism while praising the heroic struggles of the Korean minority.

Essentialism

Seeking the least common denominator, or essence, of a group, often turning out to be empty.

Zainichi

The literal Japanese translation is “residing in Japan,” with an inevitable inflection on its impermanence.

Kita Chösen

A Japanese term referring to North Korea.

Kankoku

Japanese term for South Korea.

Zainichi Kankoku Chösenjin

Japanese term for resident South Koreans and North Koreans in Japan.

Zainichi Korians

Japanese term equivalent to Zainichi Kanjin.

Kankokukei or Chösenkei Nihonjin

Japanese term for Korean Japanese

Sociological Imagination

A concept to make sense of the biographical against the larger contexts of history and social structure.

Polymorphous Parentage

The original ancestral pair with geometric growth in the number of ancestors.

Nationalism

A theory of political legitimacy requiring ethnic boundaries to align with political ones.

Shinmin

Japanese term for imperial subjects.

Futei Senjin

Korean malcontents

Most ethnic Koreans in prewar Japan

Farmers from three southern provinces (North and South Kyongsang and South Cholla, including Chejudo).

Kyösei renkō

Enforced migration during wartime labor shortages

Köminka

The policy to transform Koreans into the Emperor’s people.

Koseki

Household registry in Japan

Microaggression

Everyday, subtle, intentional (and often unintentional) interactions or behaviors that communicate some sort of bias toward historically marginalized groups.

Chōsen 朝鮮

A common colonial-era appellation that came to be a racial epithet referring to North Korea or Koreans affiliated with it.

Zainichi Chōsenjin 在日朝鮮人

Term for ethnic Koreans in Japan in the 1950s, reflecting allegiance to North Korea.

Kankoku 韓国

South Korean term for (South) Korea and Koreans affiliated with South Korea, preferred after waning allegiance to the North.

Zainichi Kankoku Chōsenjin 在日韓国朝鮮人

The normative nomenclature in the 1970s and 1980s for the totality of ethnic Koreans in Japan.

Han’gulハングル

Korean language script, used by NHK to avoid using Japanese renditions that might carry political connotations.

Zainichi Korean 在日コリアン

English term used to neutralize the split between the two Koreas when referring to resident Koreans in Japan.

Zainichi Kanjin 在日韓人

Sinified equivalent of 'Zainichi Korean'.

Gaijin

Japanese term for foreigners

Koseki (household registry)

Documentary foundation of ethnic distinction, expressed in everyday life as Korean name and Korean ancestry.