Hatred remarks and other acts of discriminating the Korean residents in Japan are going from bad to worse in Japan with each passing day.

In the middle of December, the Osaka City authority announced the name of the person who is the representative of the organization called the “Association Aspiring for Japan without Koreans” which scattered leaflets, after having admitted that the leaflet incident happened in the living quarters of the Korean residents in Japan in 2018 is an act of xenophobia.

This association, whose name itself is tinged with human hatred and national chauvinism, had once stirred up gruesome atmosphere in the Japanese society by distributing the leaflets with the writing that “Koreans commit crimes”, “leave Japan” etc.

This year alone, phenomena of persecution against the Korean residents in Japan are not being eradicated. The CEO of the cosmetics conglomerate openly posted on the company’s website a document which is instigating discrimination against the Korean residents in Japan. And the Korean residents in Japan were exposed to the warning at the "consultation center for multicultural coexistence" that they will be “obliterated” and “murdered”.

In retrospect, history shows that the acts of discriminating the Korean residents in Japan became more acute whenever it was plunged into extreme difficulty such as natural disaster.

It is well-known to the world that the Japanese authorities, in order to divert criticism against it at home when the earthquake struck the Kanto area in 1923, drove the Japanese to commit unimaginable brutal genocide of the Koreans while spreading false rumors that the Koreans poisoned wells and are raising a riot and committing mass arson.

When the earthquakes hit Kumamoto prefecture and Fukushima prefecture in 2016 and 2021 respectively following the 2011 earthquake in eastern Japan, the far right conservative forces also let loose reckless remarks and false rumors that “crimes by foreigners are prevalent”, “watch out for riots by the Koreans”, “Koreans poisoned wells in Fukushima” etc. This only reminds us of the time when there was agitation for massacring the Korean residents in Japan during the earthquake in Kanto. The Japanese authority, however, did not enforce any legal measures.

In Japan, a street demonstration, putting up slogan, distribution of propaganda literature, graffiti, hatred remarks and acts of intimidation-all of which aimed at slandering and defiling other nations-have become a commonplace. And the social network service that should contribute to the promotion of coexistence, co-prosperity and the public interest in the human society is being misused as a medium that amplifies and disseminates violent discrimination.

Such an anachronistic trend prevailing in Japan is a typical expression that Japanese society is deviating to the Right and growing fanatic.

This is clearly an inevitable result of the deep-rooted policy of national chauvinism by the Japanese government that has lasted for centuries.

The Korean residents in Japan are the victims and their descendants who were taken to Japan by force due to the anti-ethical acts of the Japanese imperialists before they were coerced into doing forced labour. Therefore, they deserve to receive legal protection and preferential social treatment from the Japanese authority.

Japanese authority would be well-advised to immediately make amends for its chronic human rights ills before it talks about human rights issue of other country while claiming about deceptive “democracy, basic human rights and the rule of law” and even setting up a new post for the human rights adviser to the prime minister.

Kim Sol Hwa

Researcher of Institute for Studies of Japan

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DPRK