Ungeliebt, doch geduldet - Koreaner in Japan Testfall für Tokyos Asienpolitik

Abstract

Within the closed Japanese society, the Korean minority constitutes an ethnic group which until today has been resisting "Japanization". For this reason ethnic Koreans have been and still are discriminated in many ways. The international crisis related to North Korea's nuclear ambitions has forced Japan to no longer ignore its biggest ethnic minority. The article tries to portray the evolution of the Korean problem in Japan from the pre-war years over the period of the American occupation to the present. The Korean question confronts Japan, at present pursuing a political reorientation towards Asia, with one of the darkest chapters of its past. A solution of the Korean problem requires a radical change of attitudes and policies on both the Japanese and the Korean part. As long as Japan is only tolerating its Korean minority and treating Koreans as second-class citizens, it will be difficult for Tokyo to develop normal relations with Korea and thus contribute to greater stability in Northeast Asia.