Creating Subaltern Counterpublics

This is a study of a political and social movement instigated by older Korean women in Japan, beginning in the 1990s. Koreans in Japan have occupied an unique position among ethnic minority groups. Until recently they constituted the largest group of "foreign nationals". yet they have been marginalized politically, socially, economically, and culturally. Korean women are doubly-disadvantaged, treated as inferior to men by both Korean and Japanese society.

Furthermore, the first generation of Korean women migrants were not educated as children, rendering them functionally illiterate and, thus, triply marginalized. Late in life, when family and work responsibilities became less onerous, local authorities created educational opportunities, which the women took up in unexpected numbers, overloading the facilities. The authorities' responses effectively re-marginalized them. The elderly Korean women took a stance and, in the process, reconstituted themselves as social and political actors. This book examines that self-transformation process.