YUUKA SUGIYAMA
Ethnicity and Identities of Zainichi Koreans: Ethnicity and Use of
Names:
1. Introduction
This paper discusses the role of ethnicity in Zainichi Koreans’ determination of name use.
Zainichi Koreans have historical origins traced back to Japan’s colonization of the Korean
peninsula during the period of 1910 and 1945. The majority of them are now second, third or
fourth generations born in Japan, whose first language is Japanese. Zainichi Koreans usually
have two names, a Korean name and a Japanese name. The majority of Zainichi Koreans have
hid their ethnic roots by passing as Japanese with Japanese names to avoid discrimination.
Currently 80-90 percent of them use Japanese names for daily life, while the rest 10-20 percent
use Korean names. Their Korean name is usually the legal name for most non-naturalised
Koreans, and their Japanese name is a passing name (alias).
This study adopts an empirical
qualitative method based on semistructured and in-depth interviews and field observation which
were conducted for three years between 2007 and 2010 in urban areas of eastern Japan. This
paper shows the association between use of names and the preservation, abandonment and
construction of their ethnic identities for the respondents. This research seeks to understand the
details of how their (re)constructed Korean ethnicities brought about a shift in the meanings
attached to Japanese and Korean names.
2. Chongryun Koreans
2.1. Chongryun Koreans in their 30s and 40s
For the purpose of analysis and comparison, the respondents are categorised into five groups:
(1) Chongryun Koreans in their 30s and early 40s, (2) Chongryun youths in their late teens and
20s, (3) those who received both Chongryun-affiliated school and Japanese school education,
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(4) Japanese school graduates using Korean names, and (5) Japanese-schooled Koreans using
Japanese names. Chongryun is one of the two main Zainichi Korean organisations in Japan and
serves as a representative of North Korea in Japan. It has offered firm loyalty to North Korea
and consists of numerous associations affiliated to the main organisation across Japan.
This section explores the implications of the name use of Chongryun Korean respondents in
their 30s and early 40s. Generally speaking, all Chongryun Koreans use their Korean names in
private within the orbit of the Chongryun community (Fukuoka 2000). Chongryun students are
made to use their Korean names at school, and full-time workers in Chongryun use Korean
names. On the other hand, the other Chongryun Koreans in their 30s to 40s were divided
between passing name users and Korean name users at work. Interestingly, whilst those working
in Zainichi-peculiar industries tended to use Japanese names at work, those working in Japanese
employment spheres tended to use Korean names.
According to the respondents working for Zainichi-owned businesses, including a Korean food
shop, pachinko-related companies, and a finance house, the practice of using Japanese names
has long been present among employees. The president of a pachinko-related company, In-sung
(male, age 41) used a Japanese name at work and made all his Zainichi Korean employees do
the same. At the interview, he presented two business cards, one with his Korean name for
Chongryun activities, and the other with his Japanese name for his own business. As Banton
(1996) puts it, personal names are ‘signs of ethnicity.’ These Zainichi Koreans presented
different ethnic identifications according to the situations by switching their names, in the same
manner as In-sung’s picking either of the two business cards.
Using a passing name at work did not cause these respondents any psychological confusion.
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These Chongryun Koreans had little resistance using a passing name partly because the order to
do so came from their fellow Zainichi bosses. They regarded it as just a convention and a
passing name is ‘only a tool to live in Japanese society.’ These Chongryun Koreans made a
sharp distinction between the two complete separate domains: the Zainichi community, in which
they were surrounded by their families and comrades, and the workplace in Japanese society, in
which they earned money to make a living. They had no interaction with Japanese except in
business.
2.2. Chongryun Youth in their Teens and 20s
In the meantime, this research reveals important generational changes in the meanings of names.
Interview data with Chongryun youth in their late teens and 20s identified a new tendency in
terms of name use; many of them used their Korean names even after graduating from high
school and entering Japanese schools or universities. Using Japanese names never occurred to
these young Chongryun-related respondents upon entering Japanese schools. This illustrates
their desire to be recognised as Zainichi Korean from the beginning while cultivating social
networks in Japanese society. To them, a Korean name plays an essential role in manifesting
their ethnic background; it helps them to define and emphasise their ‘ethnic categorisation’ and
‘group identification’ (Jenkins 2008). At the same time, using a Korean name in Japanese
settings provides new ethnic school graduates with a vivid awareness of their ethnicity and of
their being different from others for the first time.
The comparison between these younger-generation Koreans and the older generation exhibits
the generational differences in perceptions on passing names as well as in their social relations
and lifestyles. Younger Chongryun Koreans have had a higher level of education attainment,
and formed closer relationships with Japanese friends and colleagues than previous generations.
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Their workplace is not only somewhere where they do a job to earn a living, but also an
important place in which to achieve self-realisation. Thus, to these younger Koreans, the name
use is deeply associated with a sense of identity. Their eagerness to use a Korean name at school
or work in Japanese society denotes their hopes to build a firm personal relationship with
Japanese people. These younger generations are incorporating themselves into Japanese society
more, but not by assimilating, rather by claiming their differences and manifesting their ethnic
identity. In this light, young Chongryun Koreans have constructed their own new sets of life
values, through which a new distinctive identity has emerged.
3. Ethnic- and Japanese-School Graduates
Interviews with those who received education both from Chongryun-affiliated and Japanese
schools revealed other aspects regarding the correlation between name use and ethnic identities.
Eun-a (female, age 31), who used her Korean name through Chongryun and Japanese schools
and at work until recently, started using her Japanese family name and her Korean first name
with Japanese reading on business. Her view about using a passing name was consistent with
that of older Chongryun Koreans; a Japanese name serves as a means of ensuring smooth
business. Nevertheless, unlike Chongryun Koreans, she had an attachment to her Japanese name
as well as her Korean name. Likewise, Nami (Interviewee 30, female, age 31) used a Japanese
name more frequently, and she had an emotional attachment to it as well. While attending
nursery school under her passing name, people called her by her Japanese first name. She used
her Korean name at Chongryun-affiliated schools and at Japanese high school and university.
Although never experiencing discrimination at schools, she suffered from bullying at a part-time
job. She then realised using a Korean name a profound handicap living in Japanese society.
Consequently, she started using her Japanese name upon starting to work for a Japanese
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company after university. While she sometimes described herself as South Korean at work, she
was reluctant to talk about her graduation from Chongryun-affiliated schools. Clearly she was
willing to identify primarily with South Korea rather than North Korea. While she stressed
having a firm Korean ethnicity, her decision on use of names was influenced by the stigmatised
image of North Korea and the ethnic schools, as well as experiences of discrimination.
Eun-a and Nami received the same education in similar circumstances: nine years of Chongryun
ethnic education and seven years of Japanese high schools and universities. However, their
social experiences after graduation were quite different. Nami’s experience of discrimination
created an inferiority complex about being a Chongryun-affiliated school graduate and ‘a
foreigner.’ By contrast, Eun-a’s Korean ethnicity was not negatively affected. Eun-a spent two
years in New York and made friends with international backgrounds. She also spent three
months studying Korean in South Korea, and dated a South Korean man for several years. Nami
had no such international experience. In comparison between these two cases, this research
found two key elements in relation to use of names and the respondents’ identity: Nami’s
experience of discrimination, and Eun-a’s experience of being in international settings.
Through adjusting herself to the various international environments and thus becoming more
cosmopolitan, Eun-a reestablished and reshaped her identity. On the other hand, Nami’s ethnic
identity, forged through the nine-year ethnic education, was rarely adjusted over the years in a
positive way. As Banton emphasises, a person’s name can be a sign of an ethnic role that the
person plays (Banton 1996). To Nami, A Japanese name enables her to be invisible and blend
right in with Japanese society (Lim 2009: 91), and it can secure a sense of belonging to the
majority; it allows her to be the same as her Japanese friends and colleagues. At the same time
her Japanese name enables her to disassociate herself from North Korea-related elements, while
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her Korean name is the greatest obstacle to this disassociation. The perception of stigmatised
and stereotyped qualities associated with Zainichi Koreans was internalised within her while
using a Japanese name. She even considered naturalising under a Japanese name. Both Eun-a
and Nami sustained a sense of Korean ethnicity as an individual and maintained a limited
network of friends and acquaintances in the Chongryun community. Notwithstanding, their
different social lives made their attitudes and perceptions on a Korean ethnicity and the two
names distinctly different.
4. Japanese-School Graduates with Korean Names
4.1. The Scattered and Isolated Zainichi Koreans
For Zainichi Koreans educated in the Japanese school system, Korean names are the only
marker signalling their Korean origin (Lim 2009: 92). Yet the majority of Japanese-schooled
Koreans use Japanese names in daily life; passing is significantly prevalent. Yeun-ja
(Interviewee 26, female, age 25), who attended Japanese schools with a Korean name and had
no passing name, was one of the rare cases. Having attended Japanese schools, Yeun-ja had few
Zainichi Korean friends. She participated in Mindan-related events a few times, but never
returned to the group feeling a gap between her and other Mindan group members. These group
members usually used a passing name in daily life in Japanese society and Korean names only
within the group. She criticised them for ‘being contradictory,’ and was indignant at the
members, who claimed that her life must have been easy to live as she used only a Korean name.
Her account showed the difficulties of living as a Korean with a Korean name alone in Japanese
society. It also exhibits an example that the lack of mutual understanding between Zainichi
Koreans resulting from different individual experiences can lead to resentments building up on
both sides.
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4.2. Negative Meanings Attached to Names
Byung-soon (female, age 34) simply found it ‘cool’ to be a foreigner at first when starting to use
her Korean name at seven. Nevertheless, as soon as she started using her Korean name, the way
her classmates looked at her began changing. They began saying to her, ‘go back to South
Korea!’ This incident eventually made her hate to say her Korean name in front of people in her
teens. Her experience of using a Korean name became associated with rejection by Japanese
peers, and it negatively affected the formation of her identity; her Korean name began entailing
stigma, which caused her great pain in her childhood years. In the end, however, Byung-soon
continued using her Korean name for social contacts even after naturalisation under her
Japanese name. Her father, who had used a Japanese name from childhood, did not understand
why Byung-soon adhered to her Korean name. Many second-generation Koreans can perform
Japaneseness effortlessly (Lie 2008: 19). On the other hand, the third-generation Byung-soon
felt uncomfortable about navigating her ethnicity and changing names. To Byung-soon, her
Japanese name was not a tool to disguise herself for the sake of convenience, unlike Chongryun
Koreans. Even though, for her, the painful memory of bullying is attached to her Korean name,
her Japanese name has a more negative psychological significance. For Zainichi Koreans like
Byung-soon, passing with Japanese names means to abandon, neglect, and abuse a true self. The
name issues can cause Zainichi Korean youths severe psychological damage and confusion
about their identities.
5. Japanese-School Graduates with Japanese Names
5.1. Japanese Names Only
Out of the seven Zainichi Koreans who went to Japanese schools under Japanese names, two of
them naturalised and their Japanese names became their official names. These naturalised
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people rarely had positive feelings about Zainichi Koreans and rejected relationships with other
Koreans. They showed little feeling of attachment towards their Korean names or being
‘Korean.’ Regarding their Japanese names as their real names, they tended to consider
themselves almost the same as Japanese. Indicating her desire to conceal her ethnic background
from people, one of the respondents suggested her Korean name was nothing but a stigmatising
label.
5.2. Navigating Ethnicity: Switching Names
The research also discovered some respondents switched their names from Japanese to Korean
names in specific places. Saki (female, age 38) never revealed her ethnic background to her
Japanese friends. Although she had known her Korean name since childhood, her Korean
parents never talked about ‘being Korean’ at home. Saki considered herself just the same as a
native Japanese person except for her South Korean nationality. In her early 20s, however, she
started learning Korean traditional dance, and in the dance group she began using her Korean
name. Nevertheless, once she stepped out from the dance studio, she turned back into a Japanese
woman with a Japanese name. Therefore, she lived in two completely separate worlds for more
than ten years: daily life in Japanese society, and her activities in the Korean dance group.
Switching names allowed her to navigate two ethnicities. She never invited her Japanese friends
to see her dance shows, or never told people in and around the dance group that she used a
Japanese name in daily life.
Switching names and leading two lives never caused her feelings of confusion or contradiction.
She neither perceived herself as South Korean nor Zainichi Korean. Considering her ethnic
background seriously made her uncomfortable because ‘there was no use’ in doing so. She said
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the Korean part of herself, ‘her blood,’ was satisfied by dancing, and thus never intended to seek
for her ethnicity in other aspects of life. To Saki, her passing name was a cue to become an
ordinary Japanese woman, while her Korean name was simply associated with Korean dance,
the only Korean culture she felt she had. She reconciled her Korean roots with her nearly
complete Japanese identity and lifestyle by dancing Korean traditional dance under a Korean
name in a limited time and space. Consequently, Saki veered between two ethnicities and
identities in the two different circumstances. This suggests that she had ‘a repertoire of identity
choices’ or a hybrid identity (Song 2003). These respondents such as Saki used their Korean
names only in Korean-related areas where the majority of people were Koreans. This suggests
that they succeeded in blending in with each situation with dexterity by switching names. In this
light, they were not even aware of their own otherness in either sphere, while having a dual
identification. To them, both a Korean name and a Japanese name serve as instruments to help
them adjust themselves to each circumstance.
5.3. Assimilation or Navigation?
This research finds the encounter with other Zainichi Koreans is highly relevant to the extent of
their willingness to use ethnic names. Zainichi Koreans in isolation from other Koreans tend to
bear negative (self) images of Zainichi Koreans, consistent with those which permeate Japanese
society (Lee 1995). For them, their Korean names represent a social stigma associated with their
hidden ancestral lineage. On the other hand, some Zainichi Koreans, who establish lively
relationships with other Zainichi Koreans, are likely to dispel the distorted (self-)image of
Zainichi Koreans. Their Korean ethnicity is (re)constructed, and the meanings of their names
change accordingly.
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In addition, the Japanese-schooled respondents who never used Korean names had little
accurate historical knowledge of Japan’s colonialism and the resultant presence of Zainichi
Koreans, and their fear of being different and being discriminated against was enormous. Their
psychological plight reflects the prevalent myth of Japanese homogeneity. Since the existence of
ethnic minorities has been denied in Japanese society, the common solution among Zainichi
Koreans was to learn to live with this monoethnic ideology (Lie 2008: 28). As a result, they had
little hope of pursuing their ethnic roots and cultural heritage. Neither did they have a desire to
be recognised as Zainichi Koreans. Due to the lack of role models for Zainichi Koreans, they
failed to accept their identity as Zainichi Koreans positively. As they well understood all the
negative elements of people’s perceptions, they were aware that using Korean names entailed
the possible risk of discrimination. On the other hand, a Japanese (passing) name was a tool not
only to make them ordinary Japanese, but also to conceal their real self. It could deceive people,
and even themselves. Starting to use a Korean name represents their determination to reject the
stigmatised status imposed by Japanese society. Their sense of being Zainichi Koreans has been
created by this process, which is, to borrow from Hall, ‘learning to come into an identification’
(Hall 2009: 205).
6. Conclusion
The physical similarities between Koreans and native Japanese make it easy for Koreans to pass
as Japanese. For this reason, a Korean name can be a powerful ethnic marker. It can also serve
as a strong source of identification; it may give rise to a sense of connection to their Zainichi
community, ancestors, and other members of their ethnic group. A Japanese name, on the other
hand, can also be a useful device for Zainichi Koreans to pass as Japanese and integrate
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themselves into Japanese society. In other words, a Japanese name may obscure the ethnic
consciousness of the users.
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