Zainichi Korean Women and Intersectional Visibility: Private Talk, Public Speech, Political Act—Seeking Justice in Japan

Abstract:Currently, Zainichi Korean women emphasize being “ethnic women” in the public sphere. Individual consciousness, in conjunction with the history of the ethnic community, socio-political realities and trends within the mainstream Japanese society, and international collective movements are charting the course of action in discovering their public voice. The merging of spaces from private talk and memory of first generation serves as a catalyst for younger generation women to “seek justice.” Zainichi women’s legacy of strength of survival, and the collective consciousness of activism against blatant discrimination within Japan, as well as the recognition that social gains are only won through speaking out, younger generation women are setting legal precedence. Although facing opposition and retaliation from the socially and politically powerful, through strategies formed in intergenerational collectives and interethnic collaboration of women across ethnicities, vitriolic hate speech and hate crime are countered by women historically cast aside and invisible. I argue that Zainichi Korean women’s battles against hate-speech are for the sake of demanding social justice as individuals, as well as in reaction to the communal memory of oppression as Koreans in Japan, and as a message for the greater society that they would not simply take it and will not remain quiet.