This hybrid panel discussion is a celebration of Hwaji Shin’s new book, Being Korean, Becoming Japanese?: Nationhood, Citizenship, and Resistance in Japan. This book is available in print and through open access.

If you would like to attend virtually, please register for the Zoom at https://myumi.ch/dgNX8

The panel will be followed by a reception in the Lane Hall lobby.

Participants:
Hwaji Shin, Professor of Sociology, University of San Francisco and former Toyota Visiting Professor, University of Michigan
David Jacobson, Professor of Sociology, University of South Florida
Macario Garcia, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Kennesaw State University

In Japan, the number of “Special Permanent Residents”—most of whom are of Korean descent, the so-called “Zainichi”—is declining, according to government statistics. Does this mean Koreans living in Japan are becoming Japanese? Hwaji Shin’s new book presents a compelling sociological analysis of Korean colonial migrants’ and their descendants’ politics of self-identification and their ongoing struggle for social justice. Centering on the social and political exclusion of Koreans, the book asks two fundamental questions: What has triggered the historical transformations of nationhood, citizenship, and migration policies in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Japan? How are these transformations related?

Hwaji Shin challenges the persistent belief that Japan’s ethno-racial homogeneity is responsible for its restrictive citizenship and immigration laws. She argues that the relationships between nationhood, citizenship, and migration in Japan have always been fluid and historically contingent rather than causal or static. Her work examines the nexus of these three concepts from a subaltern perspective and illuminates the ways in which non-state, marginalized actors directly influenced the state’s development of citizenship and immigration policies. It explores the failures and triumphs of Koreans resisting Japanese ethno-racial oppression through stories of ordinary lives that have been disrupted by wars, elites’ interests, and geopolitics. Being Korean, Becoming Japanese? draws on rich historical data to provide a powerful narrative about how Koreans in Japan have defiantly survived and thrived to impact the country’s ideas and policies of nationhood, citizenship, and migration for more than a century.

This event is sponsored by the Center for Japanese Studies and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at cjsevents@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.