Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how the symbolism of Koreanness is displayed through cuisine in contemporary Japan. Long-silenced minority expressions of Koreanness in the context of ‘homogeneous’ national rhetoric take advantage of the wave of global consumption.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores how Korean migrants and their descendants gradually negotiate with a process of displaying their ethnic identity through cuisine in contemporary Japan. Since the defeat of the Pacific War in 1945, the post-war Japan has maintained the ideology of homogeneous Japan as the national identity. The Korean minority’s sense of belonging in Japan is complex, especially because Japan’s dominant ‘monoethnic’ national identity in its media, education system and socio-political discourse has all demanded a certain level of commitment such as the use of Japanese aliases to ‘pass’ as Japanese persons and to refrain from an overt display of the ethnic identity. Although the Korean cuisine was originally perceived as taboo in Japan, its popularity had gradually grown in the last few decades. One of the reasons is Japan’s expansion in various forms of global consumption and cultural appropriation, and the country is also forced to internationalise by taking in an increased number of new foreign labour immigrants. Recently, Japanese society started to acknowledge the embodied diversity, and the long-hidden Korean cultural artefacts such as food, music, and cultural products started to appear in the Japanese mainstream culture. By blending in the stream of multicultural consumption, the Korean cuisine has gained its space and recognition in the Japanese market. The Korean food products and culinary events have become the cornerstone of the Korean minority’s ethnic expressions in various socio-political platforms and cultural production. By repositioning Korean cultural artefacts such as food, the Korean ethnicity is increasingly being accepted by Japanese society.