The discriminated fingers: the Korean minority in Japan

Monthly Review, Jan, 1987 by John Lie

THE DISCRIMINATED FINGERS: THE KOREAN MINORITY IN JAPAN

The Japanese prosperity continues unabated, prominently symbolized by an unprecedented trade surplus and the supremacy of the yen. Prime Minister Nakasone enjoys a high approval rating from the populace as the reign of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party appears as secure as ever. Economic success and domestic stability seem to verify the Panglossian image of Japan as the veritable capitalist utopia. The surface calm nonetheless belies some internal discontents. One significant source is the effort, primarily by the Korean minority in Japan, to abolish the system of "forced fingerprinting' (shimon ounatsu) imposed during alien registration. As the number of people who refuse fingerprinting grows, the attention of the Japanese mass media has increasingly focused on this neglected group of 670,000 people.

The ostensible source of contention is the mandatory fingerprinting required every five years for all foreign residents in Japan over the age of 16. Every alien must carry along a "Certificate of Alien Registration' whenever she or he is in public. The government justifies the practice by appealing to a need to identify and monitor foreigners. The opposition regards it as a blatant violation of human rights and dignity; treating foreign residents as "criminals.' Furthermore, since over 80 percent of resident aliens in Japan are of Korean nationality, the regulation is reasonably perceived as a measure aimed at the Korean minority. More significantly, the practice is a symbolic locus of mounting discontent over the systematic discrimination against Koreans living in Japan.

The proximate origin of the movement to refuse fingerprinting commenced with the "one man rebellion' by Jon Sok Han of Tokyo in September 1980. This act was soon followed by an American, Kathleen Morikawa. Both were soon indicted and fined in the local district courts of Tokyo and Yokohama, respectively. The primary rationale of the courts was the same: the law exists and is legitimized by the need to verify the identity of resident aliens.

The very process of court trials, however, has unveiled some facts which cast serious doubt on the claims of the government and the local courts. Local government officials have testified that they lack the manpower and expertise necessary to utilize fingerprints for any purpose. Ironically, even the personal identification at the trials did not (obviously) use fingerprints to verify the identities of Han or Morikawa. Furthermore, it was revealed that the police had been illegally using fingerprints. These instances of abuse point to the lurking danger of bureaucrats and police officers exercising illegal administrative control and surveillance over the Korean minority.

Despite criticisms, the government officials remain unrepentant. Their resolve is buttressed by and reflects the larger public's prejudice against the Koreans. The cries of "Koreans go home!' represent only the surface of a typical Japanese attitude toward Koreans. A recent statement by the official in charge of alien registration reveals the depth of the problem. He maintained that three options exist for Koreans: they may leave Japan, become naturalized citizens, or simply obey the law. The presentation of such seemingly innocuous and obvious choices nonetheless obfuscates the nature of the problem. All three choices are unfeasible or highly undesirable for most Koreans living in Japan.

A striking but neglected fact is that the Korean minority in Japan is an historical legacy of Japanese imperialism. Japanese policy since the annexation of Korea in 1910 has been atrocious. Most Koreans were forcefully brought over to Japan to perform manual and menial labor. The number of Koreans living in Japan was over 2.4 million by the end of the Second World War. Life under colonialism was generally miserable, punctured by occasional pogroms, such as the massacre of Koreans in Tokyo after the Great Earthquake of 1923. Under the policy of "integration,' all Koreans were required to adopt Japanese names and to undergo Japanese education.1

The end of the war brought only limited improvement. Although about 75 percent of the Koreans in Japan were able to return, the rest remained. Even though many of the latter harbored hopes of returning home, external events like the Korean War and the difficulty of giving up established economic roots kept many of them in Japan. The Japanese citizenship of those who remained, for example, was stripped away in the last directive issued under the old constitution. The Korean minority was thus bereft of ordinary rights enjoyed by other citizens. Although they still pay taxes, they do not have the right to vote or access to many welfare services. To cap it off, the Japanese continued discriminatory treatment of "the colonials' through new laws and regulations, of which the system of forced fingerprinting, which began in 1955, was but one example.2