Topic > Racism and Capitalism in Japan

The problems of racism are often inextricable from capitalism and colonialism throughout the world. One of the best examples to illustrate this phenomenon is the exploitation and discrimination that Japan exerted on Korea in the early 20th century, as illustrated by Kawashima's arguments about the unfair treatments faced by Korean tenant workers in his book, The Proletarian Gamble: Korea Workers in Interwar. Japan. Because of the rice production policy that Japanese landowners and capitalists practiced with wealthy Korean landowners, Korea soon became the source of cheap rice exports and land exploitation. Furthermore, many Korean farmers were left landless and could only survive by becoming rented or semi-tenanted, or by going to Japan to work as general laborers. Although they were considered an indispensable source of labor and an asset to their employers, they were treated harshly and discriminatorily by their employers as if they were available at any time, and also by their potential owners and the legal system in Japan. Koreans not only experienced racism when looking for work but also when looking for a place to rent. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Koreans were treated as if they were cheap, temporary, exploitable individuals whose purpose is to fill the gaps in the labor shortage caused by previous factory strikes organized by Japanese workers, as well as serve as an additional labor supply . Their presence has the sole purpose of carrying forward capitalist production by ensuring that labor is always available, especially when there is a shortage of labor, to enable capitalists to generate maximum profit by all possible means. Receiving wages 30 to 50 percent lower than their Japanese counterparts, Korean workers had difficulty paying the high, unregulated rent imposed by landlords. They were the first to be fired despite their relatively low salary. The barriers imposed by racist screening to obtain rental contracts have worsened the prospect of renting affordable places to live. Even though Koreans could afford rent, Japanese landlords refused to give them leases because of their ethnicity. They had few methods of dealing with the housing crisis other than employing Japanese aliases and tenants, subletting the rental property (so many people could split the rent together), living in geshuku (guesthouses) and barracks, living communally, and seeking eviction penalties the owners to move from one place to another; Korean tenant workers sometimes got away with these methods, but unfortunately they faced serious consequences when caught doing so. Japanese landlords often used physical violence as a means to forcibly evict Koreans from rented homes and rooms. There were cases involving the courts to resolve disagreements between landlords and tenants; however, about 50% of cases were dismissed or withdrawn, implying that about half of cases required private reconciliation on evictions and other terms. This decision means that Korean tenant-workers could only face the dangerous negotiations themselves, which is a sign of deferred eviction. As for the Korean workers who built shacks to maintain their marginal survival under the capitalist government, they were often forced to,.