ABSTRACT
The vote is generally regarded as ‘the last hurdle’ in securing civic rights for the Korean community. Prospects for voting rights at the local level have improved in recent years, but the situation remains complex. As ever, attitudes among the Koreans themselves are also divided. In 1992, feeling that court action alone was inadequate to advance Koreans’ rights in Japan Yumi Lee decided to contest the Upper House election and, together with ten other party members from various areas, applied for candidature in the proportional representational division. Lee criticized the Mindan and Mintoren policy of giving priority to local suffrage on the grounds that local and national levels are inseparable. Blacks in the United States were given voting rights on both levels after the Civil War, while those in South Africa campaigned for both together. The same applied to Japanese women after Second World War.
