ABSTRACT
Chongryun has consistently emphasized the need for Koreans in Japan to abide by Japanese law. Because Chongryun emerged as part of the 1955 system of peaceful coexistence, it faces the need to redefine its position inside the Japanese state system. Chongryun's law-abiding character was clearly shown in the early 1980s, when Koreans protested against fingerprinting as part of Japanese alien registration. This chapter focuses on the legal status of Koreans in Japan so as to better locate them within the Japanese state system as well as to consider the legal basis of Chongryun's official identity. In January 1991, Japanese and South Korean ministers of foreign affairs signed a memorandum putting into effect various reforms to the Alien Registration Law and the Immigration Control Act: Fingerprinting was abolished and instead personal data such as family records were to be used for identification. In 1993, after a thirty-eight-year rule, the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was replaced by a coalition government.
