A Strain of Invisibility: The Assimilation Paradox of Later-Generation Koreans in 21st Century Japan

• In Event: Student Forum Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 6: Migration and Belonging

Abstract

Today, it is estimated that 1 million Korean immigrants and their descendants live in Japan, with more than half of them being third- and later-generation. This makes Koreans one of the oldest and largest ethnic minority groups in Japan. Most of their ancestors immigrated to Mainland Japan due to the Japanese colonization of Korea between 1910 and 1945. Despite severe discrimination and social exclusion for much of the twentieth century, these Korean descendants have attained considerable socioeconomic advancement. Their attainment has led several mainstream media, critics and scholars alike to predict that the Koreans of colonial heritage will be fully assimilated and vanish into thin air sometime during the 21st century. However, their sense of marginalization characterized by frequent experiences with discrimination and a high suicide rate has pointed to an assimilation paradox. I argue that later-generations Koreans in Japan experience what I call a strain of invisibility. That is, they are not fully incorporated into the Japanese mainstream due to non-Japanese heritage but still seen as more Japanese than foreigners (or Koreans) because of the visibility of increasing new immigrants. Drawing on in-depth interviews with sixty third- and later-generation Koreans of colonial heritage, I show how invisibility leads to a worsening sense of marginalization leaving them in a liminal space between the Japanese and foreigners with no label to turn to. The finding challenges the dominant theoretical assumption that salient ethno-racial boundaries hinder full social acceptance for descendants of immigrants.

Author

• Daiki Yanagawa