Organizer and Chair: Wesley Sasaki-Uemura, University of Utah
Discussants: Gi-Wook Shin, University of California, Los Angeles; J. Victor
Koschmann, Cornell University
This panel will evaluate and compare the current status of citizens' movements in South Korea and Japan, review their respective histories (especially intellectual history), and consider their future potential as organs of political protest and social change. Postwar citizens' movements in both countries have been organized around issues of peace, gender equality, labor rights, and environmental protection. In Japan, they mushroomed in the 1970s as local residents protested state and corporate development projects, reconfiguring notions of "public welfare" and "citizen" to gain autonomy from both ruling and opposition parties. In Korea, with the collapse of the socialist bloc and the election of a civilian-led government, dissident intellectuals reinstated the state/civil society paradigm as they abandoned "revolutionary" movements in favor of more moderate "new social movements."
In both countries, the democratic agenda of strengthening Civil Society vis-à-vis the State seems to offer a critique of civilian-led (but nonetheless authoritarian) states. But what is the actual transformative potential of citizens' movements there? Will they be able to challenge state power and bring about less centralized, more democratic, egalitarian structures and practices? Can they help shape a more democratic future for the political and cultural zone of Northeast Asia, and contribute to peace and reconciliation in the region?
Jang-jip Choi and Akira Kurihara will analyze the current state of Korean and Japanese citizens' movements respectively, and discuss future directions for each. Henry Em will discuss their intellectual contexts in Korea and Japan, mapping out certain areas for comparison.
The Question of Class in Citizens' Movements in Korea
Jang-jip Choi, Korea University
Immense obstacles (all of them legacies of decades of authoritarian rule) still hinder the democratization process in South Korea, including: (1) the hegemonic grip of huge conglomerates (chaebol) over civil society; (2) the state bureaucracies' resistance to democratic reforms; (3) the perpetuation of authoritarian controls over labor; and (4) the persistence of regional prejudice vis-à-vis the Honam region.
Since the early 1960s, as a central part of its industrialization strategy, the authoritarian developmental state in South Korea created huge conglomerates and compelled them to carry out state-defined national goals. Now, with the election of a civilian-led government, and the easing of state controls over the economy, the chaebol exert overwhelming influence over political as well as civil society. Moreover, democratic reforms merely transformed the state bureaucracies into an immensely powerful interest group, while restrictions on organized labor, especially in the area of political participation, have yet to be lifted. All these have had a devastating effect on the political culture, reducing politics to a game between elites where political and social reform can only come from the 'top down" as the general public becomes more and more alienated from politics.
In analyzing citizens' movements, then, we must ask: can environmental, feminist, consumer, labor, and human rights groups actually check the power of the chaebol, as well as the bureaucratic state? What position does and should labor occupy in citizens' movements? Will citizens' movements be able to establish a position of moral leadership over civil society?
New Social Movements in Contemporary Japan
Akira Kurihara, Rikkyô University
After World War II, labor movements developed under the direction of leftist political parties. From the latter half of the 1960s, the period of high economic growth in Japan, jûmin (local residents') movements became active in response to the contradictions of such growth. The new social movements that developed in the latter half of the 1980s-shimin (citizens') actions, citizens' networking, citizens' movements, and so on-differ quite significantly from these previous social movements.
During this period, the 1960s' forms of communities and social organizations, such as family, school, company, and labor unions, have changed. Individuals have emerged who seek new unities and social relationships based on a rhizome rather than a tree-type model. They not only oppose the State's construction of a "managed society," but present alternative plans shaped around diverse issues such as the environment, peace, citizenships, human rights, the welfare of disabled persons, kyôsei (symbiosis), and alternative lifestyles and technologies. But the key categories in these issues have been citizens' autonomy and networks.
New social movements in Japan seek to strengthen the civil public sector vis-à-vis the administrative, with a view to building up civil society. But now these new social movements seem to have become deadlocked, because of strong administrative controls and the lack of a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) Law. One of the challenges of the 1990s is to overcome these barriers.
A Shared Future: Citizens' Movements in South Korea and Japan
Henry H. Em, University of Calfornia, Los Angeles
In 1995, at a Conference held in South Korea, Oe Kenzaburo stated, "We have to be willing to face the future, while recollecting tormented memories and carrying that heavy burden. Between people who have not completely atoned [for their offenses] and people who have not truly forgiven [the offending party], I believe that cooperation aimed at a shared future is nevertheless possible. Once such cooperation is forged, a proper settling of the past and genuine reconciliation will be possible." At this same conference, poet Kim Chi-ha stated that, with the end of the Cold War, and 50 years after Japan's defeat and Korea's liberation, the creation of a new culture, a new civilization in Northeast Asia is a task for both Korea and Japan, and he called for more frequent exchanges between new social movement groups in South Korea and Japan which shared a common vision of life-affirming communities.
When considered in this context, citizens' movements in South Korea and Japan are invested with not only the burden of ushering in a more democratic and egalitarian order in their respective countries, but also the burden of bringing about a new culture, and a more human, peaceful order in Northeast Asia. Rather than asking if that is possible, this paper will explore certain affinities between Japanese and Korean intellectuals such as Oe Kenzaburo and Kim Chi-ha-their distrust of bureaucratic state structures, and their passionate faith in the creative capacity of local communities.