戰間期 日本居住 朝鮮人의 生活相과 歸鄕

The Living Conditions of Korean Immigrants and their settlement in Japan during the 1920s and the 1930s

This paper deal with the living conditions of Koran immigrant in Japan and studies the process of their settlement or returning to Korea during the 1920s and the 1930s. Most Korean immigrants faced a shortage of houses and difficulties of employment in Japan. For the result of that, they lived in the slums outside the cities and built rest houses in the sparsely populated regions. Running inns, which also played as employment agencies, was a new business for Koreans who needed houses and jobs. First, Korean immigrants lived in flophouses and then, looked for more stable houses for rent. The increased percentage of living in the houses for rent meant that the Korean residents gradually settled in Japan as time passed. Koreans sought work with the help of acquaintances and relatives. Although some people had to make a living by themselves, Koreans, in many cases, depended on kinship or relationship of people from the same birthplace in immigrating to Japan as well as getting jobs in Japan. The biggest rate of their workplace was simple physical labor and the householders had more stable occupation, such as factory workers, compared with bachelors. A few Koreans who had enough money to rent houses, ren inns for workers and employment agencies. I investigated Koreans' working conditions in the aspects of daily wages, work days of each month, and the unemployment rate. The wages of Koreans were 10% to 50% lower than those of Japanese. About 50% of Korean laborers worked for less than 20 days a month. Although their low income forced them live in the worst conditions, factory laborers, inn holders and restaurant runners had relatively high income. Koreans with extremely low income had to borrow money from relatives or to receive relief from the municipal offices. Then, I showed how the Korean residents conceived their living condition at that time. The 65% of Koreans replied their living conditions were comfortable in economic terms. While only 17% wanted to steele in Japan in the 1920s, 60% wanted to settle in the 1930s. It was because there was no workplace for them in the homeland and many of them came to Japan together with their families. However, many Koreans failed to settle in Japan because of long time unemployment, diseases and returned to Korea with the help of relatives. The Korean settlement in Japan before World Was II proceeded under the conditions explained above and the Korean population increased in Japan.