ABSTRACT
As in the past, recent international and domestic events have influenced the lives and position of zainichi in Japanese society. For example, the increasing popularity of Korean soap operas such as Fuyu no Sonata [Winter Sonata] and the novel Sekai no Chushin de, Ai o Sakebu [Crying for love at the heart of the world] as well as the 2002 Soccer World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea seem to have created a positive interest in things Korean in Japan. Indeed, Eika Tai argues that such a ‘social climate appears to help resident Koreans to express their ethnic heritage more freely than before’ (2006: 42). In contrast to this, however, are recent revelations of the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea in the 1970s and North Korea’s underground testing of a nuclear bomb in October 2006. These events have contributed to tension between the zainichi and the wider Japanese community that have manifested themselves in acts of violence and harassment against schoolchildren attending North Korean schools in Japan (minzoku gakko¯), easily identifiable through their Chima-Chogori school uniforms (‘More Korean students face abuse’ 2003). There have also been claims that deteriorating relations with North Korea have been influential in the Tokyo local government’s decision to evict a North Korean ethnic school from land in the Edagawa area of Tokyo (Matsubara 2004). The same nuclear test has also exacerbated tensions between the zainichi South-affiliated Mindan and North-affiliated Chongryun organizations, highlighting the perennial influence of notions of national belonging and identity.
