2019, Vol., No.81

Journal of Japanese Culture 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.36

pISSN : 1226-3605 / eISSN : 2733-8908
https://journal.kci.go.kr/JJC

This paper studies magazine media published by the Jeju Islanders in Japan after World War II, and considers the significance of their media activities along with a bibliography of the publications in Japan. The Jeju Provincial People’s Association, which is based in the Kanto and Kansai regions, has led the media activities of the Jeju Islanders in Japan. From the various types of the journal published by the Jeju Provincial People’s Association, I confirmed that they sought to maintain their identity as Jeju Islanders, deepen the unity and friendship among their members, and seek a path that would lead to the economic development of Jeju Island. On the other hand, in the group of Jeju Islanders in Japan, ther is a Tamra Study Group that was formed to pursue the history and culture of Jeju Island. "Tamra Communication Study" and "Jeju Island" published by Tamra Study Group are the magazines which transmit it toward the outside world unlike the Journal of the friendship organization. Especially in the case of "Jeju Island", the island’s locality was transmitted to Japanese society, and it functioned as translocal network through cooperation with Jeju Island. Their media activities have played a significant role in the process of preserving regional identity and forming locality in the Japan Society of Jeju Islanders. The media activity of the Jeju Islanders in Japan who are creating a unique locality against the historical tide of globalization is a special phenomenon unprecedented in the magazine media history of Zainichi Koreans.

The purpose of this article is to examine the full picture of a Zainichi magazine in Japan, published between 1960 and 1989, and to question its historical significance. In the 1960s, disputes over the return of businesses to North Korea and the normalization of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan were raised in the 1970s, with major issues related to social security and generational conflicts in the 1980s. In other words, the magazine, which began in the 1970s with a new direction amongst the rigid atmosphere led by organizations in Japan since the 1960s and the harmony of the left and right conflicts, in Zainichi society developed. This is a change that transcends the concepts of “ethnicity” and “one's native country” and reveals the basis for the existence of “resident Koreans.” The study demonstrated Zainichi’s true nature by presenting the topography of the journal during this period.

This paper addresses the improvement of oral proficiency in Korean learners of the Japanese language who engaged in interactions with Japanese native speakers　based on the results of a survey. Twenty-two pairs of Japanese and Korean students interacted on social media through video- or voice-calls. Before and after these interactions, the Korean students were asked to fill out a survey using “Can-Do” Statements. The group of students who engaged in the social media interactions were then compared with a group of nonparticipant learners of Japanese, and no differences were found in Japanese language acquisition between the two groups in this one-and-a-half month study. However, the results of the survey demonstrate that the learners who engaged in the interaction were satisfied with the experience. Their comments included statements such as, “I feel that my conversational skills have improved,” “I feel more confident about how I use Japanese,” and “I understood the conversation better, because we used video-calls instead of text messages.” Six months later, an additional survey was conducted in Korean and the comments obtained from it were as follows: “I want to talk with more Japanese people,” “I have become conscious about grammar and words I have not learnt yet,” and “I started checking the dictionary more often.” The participants also indicated that managing interactions out of the classroom, the choice of the social media used, and matching conversation partners were potential ways to improve the social media experience.