“We are all ‘Residents of Japan’”: The Construction of Common Identity and the Success of the Anti-fingerprinting Movement

The anti-fingerprinting movement in the 1980s was the first movement of zainichi Koreans in Japan that achieved both its goal and support from Japanese. Considering the movement as a result of the acceptance by Japanese of Koreans' claim of their being the same “residents of Japan” as Japanese are, this paper analyzes how this acceptance was achieved, based on interview data. Particular focus is given to interpretations of structural factors by four movement actors: the Japanese state, Koreans, Korean ethnic organizations, and Japanese. This paper discusses how the Koreans' separation from ethnic organizations and the Japanese' questioning of undemocratic behavior of their own state removed the “cage of nationalism” that had divided the two. It concludes that it was this separation from the state that made the anti-fingerprinting movement one of “residents of Japan,” which was characterized by a collaboration between two groups whose national and ethnic boundaries were blurred. By describing the anti-fingerprinting movement as a “failure” from the “new” social movement point of view while being a “success” as an “old” social movement, this paper also suggests the limitation of distinction between the “old” and the “new” based on different roles of identity.