Abstract
This chapter attempts to investigate the historical formation of Korean ethnic clusters in Ikuno Ward, Osaka City, with special attention upon its resistance gentrification. In reaction to the absence of urban policy and severe discrimination, the Korean community over time developed self-dependent networks through their ethnic relations within the clusters. These networks are mainly constituted on strategies of property and self-employment which have contributed to the resilience of the ethnic clusters. It is this resilience that has kept gentrification at bay. At the same time, local ethnic organisations played an important role to support the Koreans’ social struggles for their citizen rights (resisting special fingerprint registration) and challenging legality issues concerning their migration status. Although the clusters had to deal with a deteriorating inner-city environment, some potential changes, including the establishment of “Koreatowns” and the recent inflow of young Korean entrepreneurs, are evident. These recent changes showcase possibilities for renewed urban citizenship in a previously stigmatized community.
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Notes
- 1.
As one of the most typical cases, Hirofumi Yoshimura, the governor of Osaka City, decided to cancel its sister-city affiliation with San Francisco in 2017 because he and his colleagues believed that the city’s erection of a monument to Korean “comfort women,” who forcefully dedicated themselves to soldiers during the WWII, constituted a criticism of Japan. Japanese historical revisionists have rejected critics who point to the war responsibilities of the Japanese government. This rejection is quite often connected with racist attitudes toward ethnic minorities.
- 2.
Before and during WWII, immigrants from Korea and Taiwan, which were then under Japanese colonial rule, held Japanese nationality. However, after 1952, with the Treaty of San Francisco, they were deprived of it.
- 3.
Formerly, Koreans were generally reluctant to acquire Japanese nationality because renouncement of Korean nationality had been regarded not only as the forceful assimilation into Japanese society but also as the loss of ethnicity as Koreans. In Japanese context, citizenship and Japanese nationality connotes slightly different meanings in terms of human rights, respectively. The former has an ambiguous meaning that connote basic human rights ensured in ordinary life. Meanwhile, the latter naturally contains of the former and ensures Japanese nationals for the rights conserved under a legislation.
- 4.
The data of Osaka City was not released. In 1985, 93.1% of all foreigners in Osaka Prefecture were Koreans. Among them, 59.8% resided in Osaka City.
- 5.
However, Koreans did not depend exclusively on ethnic resources. Some land-occupiers prepared the needed money by themselves. Others also utilised financial loans by Japanese banks. This is because the relatively high lending rate of ethnic banks sometimes discouraged Koreans from borrowing money from them. The reason that ethnic banks raised their lending rate is related to the division among the ethnic communities among Koreans derived from the conflict between the Republic of Korea and the D.P.R. Korea. Han (2010) shows the background of this high lending rate owing to the competitive deposit interest rate among ethnic banks to get more members for the sake of expansion of their political influence.
- 6.
Namely, nearly 90% of Korean entrepreneurs in the ethnic clusters as discussed later located in the same place of their residences.
- 7.
See note 4.
- 8.
The investments in these commercial and apartment buildings have transformed the area of Hanamachi, traditional Japanese entertainment district, into characteristic ethnic space of the concentration of Korean-style nightclubs after the 1990s. While the commercial buildings apparently offer the space for the nightclubs, the apartment buildings accommodate (mainly female) workers in such clubs. The formation of this ethnic space has been realised not only by the land purchases and investments of Korean entrepreneurs but also by the liberalisation of international travels in the Republic of Korea in 1989.
- 9.
For example, the confrontation between these political institutions became prominent in the correspondence toward the Japan-Republic of Korea Basic Relations Treaty in 1965. The Japanese government decided to ensure permanent residency only for Korean residents who had the nationality of Republic of Korea. While ethnic organisations approving of Republic of Korea recommended that Koreans obtain the nationality of the country (Koreans only had a quasi-nationality named “Chosen,” a designation derived from the geographical term for the former colonialized Korea), these political organisations met stiff opposition from their counterparts on behalf of D.P.R. Korea.
- 10.
Especially Soren, among the formal ethnic political institutions, had not apparently participated in these social movement because they have kept the principle of non-intervention in internal affairs.
- 11.
This permission is given by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in consideration of various conditions around a person in charge of unauthorised status. Some of the basic criteria for permission are publicly released, but the final decision is not necessarily uniform.
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Fukumoto, T. (2023). Absence of Urban Policy: The Historical Transformation of Korean Resident Areas in Osaka, Japan. In: Mizuuchi, T., Kornatowski, G., Fukumoto, T. (eds) Diversity of Urban Inclusivity. International Perspectives in Geography, vol 20. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8528-7_12
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