| 研究実績の概要 |
This research project analyzes the effect that the globalization of media and heightened activities of extremist nationalist groups has had on the identity politics and everyday lives of zainichi Koreans who live in the Korean enclave in Osaka. Thus far, I have been able to collect four different types of data. First, I have been gathering recently published popular books on different politic issues surrounding the Koreans in Japan. So far, I have amassed a collection of about sixty publications, which encompass the perspectives of mainstream Japanese, politicians, scholars, and social activists. Second, I have conducted about forty informant interviews with mainstream Japanese in Osaka and Korean minorities who are leaders of the Korean community in Shin Okubo (the Korean enclave in Tokyo) and Ikuno Ward in Osaka. Third, I have also been actively conducting ethnographic participant observation in four strategic sites in the field, including (1) Osaka Korean Church, the most historic and politically active Korean minority church in the enclave; (2) “Sanboram,” a prominent elderly facility catering the rapidly aging population of Koreans who first immigrated to the enclave; (3) KEY, a major Korean Youth Organization that is involved in raising cultural awareness among the young generation of Korean minorities; (4) community wide events that are organized each week by organizations such as the Korea NGO Center and the Korean YMCA in Osaka. Fourth, I have also collected Twitter data surrounding political discontent on the Korean minorities in Japan.
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| 現在までの達成度 (区分) |
現在までの達成度 (区分)
2: おおむね順調に進展している
理由
Successfully established strong social networks with both mainstream Japanese and Korean minorities in Osaka, which had been the major goal for this past year. These relations of trust will allow high quality interviews with a large number of Korean minorities whose lives are intertwined with the enclave. More than any other data source, these interviews will form the core empirical analysis for a book manuscript and future papers related to this project. At the same time, as involvement in the Korean community in Osaka has deepened, it is clear that new institutional and structural factors play an important role in analyzing recent changes in the community. In particular, in order to properly understand the structural position of the Korean minorities, it is important also to have a strong grasp of how mainstream media and social welfare policies have also changed since the 1990s. I will need to appropriate adequate time for the study of these topics.
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| 今後の研究の推進方策 |
For the remaining four months of my postdoctoral tenure, I plan to continue my involvement in various ethnic organizations and cultural events in the Korean community in Osaka. As I deepen my trust with major leaders of the community, I will start to conduct in-depth interviews with a wide demographic range of Korean minorities who are involved in the Korean enclave. The vast majority of these interviews will be conducted between May and July at an average rate of three to four interviews per week. In total, I aim to complete about forty interviews that run about two to three hours each. In addition, I will also work with International Technology (IT) technicians to start running analyses of the Twitter and social media data that we had gathered a few months ago. While the data that we collected thus far has been on Korea-Japan diplomatic relations and attitudes towards Korea and Koreans, I aim to expand the pool of data to include attitudes on social welfare politics and consumption practices of media more broadly. Finally, I plan to gather academic articles and recent graduate theses on Japanese media and social welfare. These secondary sources will be sufficient in framing my understanding of how these larger structural changes in Japanese society have affected my core field site.
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