Older women from the Utoro district in Kyoto Prefecture and the Sakuramoto area in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, sing and dance together to deepen their ties, in Kawasaki’s Kawasaki Ward on May 21, 2025. (Mainichi/Yoshiya Goto)
KAWASAKI — A group of Zainichi Korean women met in Kawasaki, near Tokyo, on May 21. These women came from Utoro in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, and from the Sakuramoto area in Kawasaki. Many Zainichi Koreans — ethnic Koreans living in Japan — in these two areas. Both groups have had difficult experiences because of hate crimes against them.
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This meeting was the second visit for people from Utoro and Sakuramoto. The first visit was in 2023, when people from Sakuramoto visited Utoro.
In the past, people did hate crimes in these two places. In Utoro, in 2021, a 22-year-old man set a building on fire to scare Korean people. In Sakuramoto, some people did things like sending letters threatening Korean people’s lives.
At this latest meeting, older women from both places came together. They shared stories about their lives. Then they enjoyed singing and dancing.
One woman from Sakuramoto, named Seck Ilboon, is 94 years old. She said life was difficult after her husband died, but she kept working until she was 86. Later, she joined a group helping older Koreans to be happier. She sang Korean songs and danced in this group. She also worked hard to stop hate speech in Kawasaki. She said, “Now, at 94 years old, I feel really happy.”
Another woman named Kim Jinmokja, age 84, from Utoro, said her life was also hard because she needed to care for her sister and could not go to school much. Kim said, “I feel close to Seck even though we just met, because our lives were very similar. Coming here today is special to me.”
After talking about their lives, the women from both communities sang Korean songs together, danced, and promised to meet again.
(Japanese original by Yoshiya Goto, Photo and Video Department)
Vocabulary
Zainichi Korean: a person from a Korean family who was born in or who lives in Japan.
hate crime: an act someone commits against another person because they dislike or hate the person’s group.
discrimination: unfair or unkind treatment of people because they come from a different group.
meeting: when people come together to talk or share an experience.
community: a group of people living in the same place or having the same background.
hate speech: using words or actions to hurt or scare people from a certain group.
traditional: old-style actions or ways of doing things, passed from older to younger people.
ordinance: a local law or rule made by a city or town government.
AloJapan.com