Earticle

In the mid-to-late nineteenth century, the Joseon dynasty faced dual pressures: the disintegration of the traditional suzerain?tributary order and the impact of the emerging modern international order. As a representative figure of Joseon’s moderate Enlightenment (Gaehwa) faction, Kim Yun-sik’s perception of Japan shifted in accordance with changes in the balance of power among Qing China, Joseon, and Japan, as well as transformations in Qing policy toward Joseon. In 1881, when he was dispatched to Tianjin as a yeongseonsa (special mission envoy), he came under the influence of Qing Self-Strengthening officials and developed a “pro-Qing, anti-Japan” outlook. After his exile to Myeoncheon in 1887, he continued to guard against Japanese encroachment in the economic and diplomatic spheres, while gradually coming to doubt the Qing’s capacity to protect Joseon. Following the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing lost its hegemonic position in East Asia, and Japan further strengthened its control over Joseon. Confronted with the diplomatic predicament of a weak state, Kim Yun-sik consequently turned toward a strategy of “reliance on Japan for survival” (uiil doson). This “reliance on Japan” was motivated by his desire to preserve dynastic order and advance institutional reform; he treated Japan, provisionally, as an external power on which Joseon might depend. In essence, this was a strategic and expedient diplomatic choice by a weak state, rather than an unconditional endorsement of Japanese expansionism. This article traces the evolution of Kim Yun-sik’s perception of Japan from 1881 to 1897, and uses these intellectual shifts to illuminate concurrent changes in Joseon domestic politics and in the broader East Asian configuration of Sino?Korean?Japanese relations.

Soviet Russia, following the end of the Civil War and the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP), began to actively pursue foreign policy, seeking to restore diplomatic and economic relations with capitalist countries and neighboring states. As socialist revolutions failed to spread across Western Europe, the Comintern shifted its strategy toward the “East,” attempting to build revolutionary alliances in Asia, including China. This policy was concretized through the establishment and operation of institutions such as the Far Eastern Peoples’ Congress and the Communist University of the Toilers of the East, which exerted significant influence on communist movements and national revolutions in East Asia. This article analyzes these policies from a multi-dimensional perspective through the travel accounts of three figures?Jiang Kanghu, Qu Qiubai, and Baopu. All three traveled to Moscow via the Trans-Siberian Railway in the early 1920s and left written records, directly or indirectly experiencing the Far Eastern Peoples’ Congress and the Communist University of the Toilers of the East. Jiang Kanghu observed the congress with a relatively detached attitude, whereas Qu Qiubai, participating as an interpreter, actively affirmed the significance of the Comintern. In contrast, Baopu critically exposed the underlying contradictions and inner workings of the congress. Their accounts vividly illustrate major diplomatic conflicts between China and Soviet Russia at the time, including issues concerning Chinese migrants in Russia, the Chinese Eastern Railway, and the Mongolian question. Jiang Kanghu, from a nationalist perspective, criticized the Soviet stance on Mongolia, while Qu Qiubai showed sympathy toward the Comintern’s position. Baopu, adopting an anti-Bolshevik stance, criticized what he perceived as the imperialistic nature of the Soviet regime. These differing interpretations of a shared experience demonstrate the complex interplay between revolutionary ideology and national consciousness.

Drawing on global value chain theory, complex interdependence theory, and supply chain resilience theory, this study examines changes in China?South Korea semiconductor relations amid intensifying U.S.?China technology competition and export controls against China. It proposes the concept of the “resilience restructuring of interdependence.” China?South Korea semiconductor relations have not developed into full decoupling. South Korea retains strong competitiveness in DRAM, NAND flash memory, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM), but remains dependent on the United States and its allies for advanced equipment, electronic design automation (EDA) software, and certain critical materials. China remains both a major market and an important production base for Korean semiconductor firms, while continuing to rely on external sources for some advanced equipment, software, and high-performance chips. Stronger U.S. export controls have compelled both countries to adjust their industrial strategies. China has accelerated domestic substitution in semiconductor equipment, materials, components, and industrial software, while South Korea has sought to balance regulatory compliance, commercial interests in China, and the stable operation of its manufacturing facilities there. As a result, bilateral relations have evolved from a simple division of labor into a complex structure involving trade, investment, production, substitution, and competition. Cooperation is increasingly differentiated by technological sensitivity and institutional risk. While advanced logic chips, HBM, leading-edge equipment, and certain EDA software face strong restrictions, cooperation remains possible in mature-node manufacturing, packaging and testing, equipment maintenance, green manufacturing, resource recycling, and supply chain digitalization. China and South Korea should therefore reduce excessive dependence on a single supplier, production base, or market while maintaining cooperation in relatively low-risk areas.

This study explores whether the institutional and financial foundation provided by the Regional Innovation System & Education (RISE) initiative can support region-based Korean language teacher training as a complementary model to existing nationwide in-service training. To this end, it examines a pilot training program conducted in the Chungcheong region. Baeum Ieumteo, operated by the National Institute of Korean Language, has served as a major national system for in-service Korean language teacher education through institution-specific programs and hybrid delivery formats. Despite these achievements, previous studies and program reports have continued to identify challenges related to accessibility, scheduling, and responsiveness to diverse regional and institutional needs. Since the nationwide implementation of RISE in 2025 expanded the role of local governments and regional universities in planning and implementing university support programs, new possibilities have emerged for developing region-based teacher training. This study analyzed survey responses from 35 Korean language teachers affiliated with a regional migrant support center and a university-based Korean language education center. The participants attended a RISE-linked training program held in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, in December 2025 as part of the Asan City Foreign Resident Support Project. The analysis focused on participants’ satisfaction with the training, professional development needs, preferred training formats, and perceptions of nationwide teacher training. The findings are as follows. First, participants reported high levels of satisfaction with both the program and its operation, including overall satisfaction (M = 4.86) and intention to participate again (M = 4.83). However, these results should not be interpreted as evidence of the inherent effectiveness of region-based training, as satisfaction may have been influenced by multiple factors, including program content, administrative support, and financial and logistical support. Second, participants reported constraints related to scheduling, travel, costs, and responsiveness to regional and institutional needs in accessing nationwide training. These perceptions were observed across both institutional groups, although the findings are limited to the participants in this single case. Third, participants’ professional development needs and preferred training formats largely corresponded with the design of the pilot program, while differences between the two institutional groups suggested the potential for coordination through regional collaboration. These findings suggest that region-based teacher training may serve as a complementary model to nationwide programs by improving accessibility, reflecting regional and institutional needs, and strengthening local professional networks. As an exploratory single-case study, however, the findings should not be generalized to all Korean language teachers or regional training programs. The study concludes by discussing conditions for the sustainable operation of region-based teacher training and for strengthening collaboration between nationwide and regional teacher education systems.

This study examines how Korean culture is selected and represented in Korean language textbooks for Hallyu fans, focusing on ??Learn! KOREAN with BTS?? and ??BLACKPINK IN YOUR KOREAN??. Cultural content with distinct meaning was identified as Korean cultural elements and classified into behavioral, informational, and achievement culture. Drawing on Hall's (1997) constructionist approach, these elements were analyzed through text, image, narrative, and learning activity, along with the role of fandom IP in the process of cultural representation. A total of 61 Korean cultural elements were identified across the two textbooks. ??Learn! KOREAN with BTS?? presented informational and behavioral culture in similar proportions, covering diverse areas such as regions, transportation, tourism, and cultural heritage, whereas ??BLACKPINK IN YOUR KOREAN?? emphasized behavioral culture related to everyday life and interpersonal relationships. Although both textbooks relied primarily on text and images, narrative was more prominent in ??Learn! KOREAN with BTS??, while learning activities were more prominent in ??BLACKPINK IN YOUR KOREAN??. The analysis also identified 29 cases of fandom mediation, in which artists, characters, and related content were directly connected to cultural explanations, experiences, or learning activities. Overall, ??Learn! KOREAN with BTS?? tended to represent Korean culture through visit- and experience-oriented contexts, whereas ??BLACKPINK IN YOUR KOREAN?? tended to represent it through everyday-life- and practice-oriented contexts. The role of fandom IP thus differed according to how it was connected to cultural content rather than how often it appeared.

This study reinterprets the ‘ttalbabo’ narrative in Korean society as a relational formation of paternal love and care that becomes visible through material and technological conditions, rather than as a purely personal expression of paternal affection. Focusing on deluxe strollers, pink ribbons, and social media platforms, this study examines how objects and technologies participate in the formation and visibility of paternal care, gendered bodily images, and parent-child relationships. Drawing upon Jane Bennett’s concept of ‘thing-power’, Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory (ANT), Karen Barad’s ‘agential realism’, and Sara Ahmed’s theory of ‘orientation’, this study examines how material objects, bodies, spaces, and media become entangled in the formation of paternal practices. Strollers connect paternal care with mobility, safety, technical skills, and management in public space. Pink ribbons connect children’s bodies with gendered meanings while making parental tastes and desires materially visible. Social media platforms and sharenting practices extend these relations into digital environments by recording, sharing, and circulating images of children and paternal care. The study argues that paternal love and care cannot be understood independently of the material, technological, and cultural conditions in which they are expressed. Objects do not determine human actions or identities on their own; rather, they participate in shaping particular forms of care, gendered representation, and family imagery. This perspective expands the analysis of the ‘ttalbabo’ narrative beyond human-centered family discourse and illuminates the material conditions through which paternal love becomes visible and socially recognizable.

The winter of 2024?2025 brought South Korean society to what many described as the brink of ‘civil war’. After the declaration of martial law on December 3, 2024, and the subsequent impeachment, people assembled in different squares within the same city, each group with its own rituals, songs, and sense of sacredness. The article views this division as at once a local instance of a worldwide crisis of democracy and a particular problem in South Korean society. Because of ‘compressed modernization’, South Korea is subject to the social malaise of ‘non-contemporaneity of the contemporaneous’, which is expressed in two ritual communities: the national ritual of the 1948 regime and the Minjung ritual associated with Gwangju in 1980 and June 1987. The article looks to the tradition of civil religion for guidance, but argues that this tradition can be applied to Korea only after the Korean discussion of civil religion has first undergone critical examination. By tracing the concept back through the writings of Rousseau, Durkheim, and Bellah, it finds two main characteristics: the discourse of civil religion arises when social divisions get out of hand, as a way of securing the basic civic creed that citizens of different sectarian communities must have in common; and it includes a transcendent reference point against which the state and those in power can be assessed. When these features are taken into account, both the common identification of civil religion with the Taegukgi rallies and the academic classification of competing ‘priestly’ and ‘prophetic’ forms of civil religion require critical revision. What separates civil religion from uncivil religion is not who controls the state but civility and tolerance toward other citizens; on this basis, the prophetic tradition is closer to the classical concern of civil religion. By way of conclusion, four proposals are suggested based on a single principle: that no fellow citizen should be excluded in the name of the sacred.

This study examines how spatial infrastructure functions as a fundamental condition for transforming marine cultural resources into marine cultural contents, through a single-case study of Tongyeong Najeon at the Tongyeong Craft Successor Training Centre. It hierarchically distinguishes marine resources, marine cultural resources, marine cultural contents, and marine cultural contentization, and develops an analytical framework linking the four components of marine cultural contents?marine characteristics, narrative completeness, contemporary implementation, and sustainability?to the spatial functions of preservation, production, mediation, and transmission. The findings show that although Tongyeong Najeon holds significant potential as a marine cultural resource, its contentization is constrained by structural deficiencies in spatial infrastructure that accumulate sequentially across all four stages. Deficiencies in material preservation and production facilities, education and exhibition spaces, and integrated transmission facilities weaken contemporary implementation, the training of successors, and long-term sustainability in turn. Based on these findings, the study proposes three policy directions for successor training centres: institutionalizing operational and spatial allocation standards through local ordinances (short term); establishing integrated transmission hubs using closed schools and other underused public facilities (medium term); and developing a state-led support system linking the designation of intangible heritage holders with the provision of transmission infrastructure (long term). The study demonstrates that spatial infrastructure is not merely a supporting facility but a fundamental condition for sustainable marine cultural contentization.

This study examines the conservation and cultural reuse of port heritage at the Bongnae-dong wharf in Yeongdo, Busan, where existing port functions coexist with emerging cultural and commercial uses. Built as an auxiliary facility of Busan Port during the Japanese colonial period, the wharf and its bonded warehouses declined as port functions moved elsewhere. Since 2019, however, private operators have converted several warehouses into cultural and commercial spaces, while tugboats, barges, and ship repair businesses remain active. Through field observation, literature review, and comparative case analysis, the study examines three domestic cases, three cases in northern Kyushu and the Kanmon Strait region of Japan, and four international waterfront cases. For qualitative comparison, the study uses the four upper-level criteria proposed by Akter et al. (2025), including Historical Significance, Architectural Uniqueness, Economic Impact, and Cultural Engagement. The findings conceptualize the transformation of Bongnae-dong as a "gradual cultural transformation of active ports". This concept is characterized by three conditions: the continuation of existing port functions, incremental spatial transformation rather than comprehensive redevelopment, and the spatial coexistence of maritime industrial activities with new cultural and commercial uses. It is proposed as an analytical subcategory that specifies Tommarchi's (2025) holistic approach in the context of small-scale active ports. Based on the comparative analysis, the study proposes five policy directions: establishing a port heritage inventory, developing conservation and reuse guidelines, creating a stakeholder consultation framework, diversifying maritime cultural programs, and incrementally improving waterfront public spaces. The study suggests that the future of Bongnae-dong should focus on sustaining and coordinating existing port activities, maritime industrial heritage, local everyday life, and emerging cultural uses rather than replacing existing port functions.

This study aims to examine the Buddhist vocabulary recorded in Bangeon-yuseok, a multilingual glossary compiled in 1778 under the direction of Seo Myeong-eung, from a diachronic perspective. Through a comparative analysis with a representative Buddhist scripture Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra(維摩詰所說經), this study further investigates the relationship between vocabulary and the thought of Chan Buddhism during the Qing dynasty. Unlike other multilingual glossary of its time, Bangeon-yuseok exclusively includes Buddhist religious vocabulary. It organizes these terms into two categories: 僧道類, which concerns monks and Buddhist practices, and 寺觀類, which deals with Buddhist architecture and religious rituals, thereby constructing a lexical system centered on religious practitioners. This study reclassifies the 69 Buddhist terms into 3 semantic categories—forms of address, religious activities, and places and implements related to religious practice—and analyzes their transmission and semantic development through comparison with major Buddhist texts. The analysis reveals that terms such as 開光, 方丈, and 壇場 gradually acquired concrete and practical meanings in the conversations of late Joseon Dynasty. Specifically, they came to denote monks' living quarters, and ritual sites, respectively. Furthermore, an examination of religious activity-related terms such as 坐禪, 合掌, and 問訊 demonstrates that Bangeon-yuseok intended for practical conversation embodied traces of Chan Buddhist thought and the philosophy of Emptiness. Consequently, this study argues that Bangeon-yuseok should be regarded as an important cultural source reflecting the Buddhist culture and the ideological orientation of both commoners and intellectuals in late Joseon. This research identifies the Buddhist vocabulary contained in Bangeon-yuseok, clarifies how these terms differ from their counterparts in Buddhist scriptures, and demonstrates the Chan Buddhist ideas. At the same time, this study highlights the significance of Bangeon-yuseok not only as a source of Early Modern Chinese vocabulary but also as a valuable resource for the study of Buddhist philosophy.

Up to now, previous studies on the cultural spheres in which the myth of the three‑legged toad was generated and became popular have generally traced its appearance to the period from the Song(宋) through the Ming (明)and Qing(淸)dynasties(Jang, Hyeon‑ju, 2022). However, the image of the three‑legged toad found in the historical record Sa-Gi(史記), as collected in this study, indicates that it originated in the ‘Heavenly Gate’ (Tianmen, 天門) of the cultural spheres of Shu(蜀) and Chu(楚) prior to the Warring States period, that is, before 223 BCE(Ryu, Hwiping, 2009). When we synthesize the evidence from works of art, it appears that the iconography of the three‑legged toad had already been completed by at least 1600 BCE, and motifs among the cultural remains of the bronze drum decorations from Wuhou Shrine(武候祠) in Chengdu (成都) took shape around the fifteenth century BCE, possessing a venerable history of more than three thousand years. Moreover, The three‑legged toad motif is found not only in Goguryeo(高句麗), from the perspective of the Sino-centric cultural sphere, was labeled as Dong-i(Eastern Barbarians, 東夷)—but also in Silla(新羅, The toad‑shaped leaf ornament from the Sikrichong(飾履塚)tomb, in Baek-je(百濟, 武寧王, The pendant ornaments from belt set of King Muryeong’s tomb), in Cŏre(高麗, water droppers and ink stones), and in genre paintings, and in genre paintings and Buddhist paintings of the Chosŏn period(朝鮮). It even appears in the ancient culture of Japan(such as the triangular‑rim divine‑beast mirrors, 三角緣神獸鏡), and The Tang(唐)‑style bronze censer of Honnō‑ji(本能寺唐銅香炉), in Vietnamese cultural heritage(the Đông Sơn drums, 東山鼓, ca. 500 BCE–300 CE), in the Astana tombs of Turfan, and in Egypt and Africa, America, allowing us to glimpse evidence of a syncretic pattern of cultural exchange not only throughout East Asia but on a global scale.

In modern China, the introduction of Western obstetric medicine, the expansion of hospital childbirth, and the state’s regulation of childbirth hygiene gradually brought women’s childbirth under the control of professional medicine and administrative institutions. While this process provided women with new medical knowledge and services, it also transformed women’s bodies and childbirth into objects of professional medical judgment and management. This study examines the dual nature of such medicalization through Zhang Mojun’s 1929 medical dispute over quinine. In 1926, Zhang Mojun took quinine at the recommendation of her attending physician, Zou Bangyuan, late in pregnancy and subsequently delivered a stillborn fetus. In 1929, she and her husband, Shao Yuanchong, filed a complaint regarding the incident. The case developed into a medical dispute over the dosage and purpose of the quinine administration, the appropriateness of the medical treatment, the causal relationship between the drug and fetal death, and the physician’s responsibility. Ultimately, because the causal relationship could not be clearly established, the suspension of Zou Bangyuan’s medical practice was revoked. Zhang Mojun, however, presented detailed accounts of her bodily experience and medical records, questioned the appropriateness of the prescription and the responsibility of the medical treatment, and sought to share her experience with other pregnant women. This case shows that the modernization of obstetric medicine did not directly lead to an expansion of women’s medical rights. However, female patients sought to voice their concerns by questioning medical practices and raising issues regarding the appropriateness of medical treatment on the basis of their own bodily experiences and medical records. Zhang Mojun’s efforts to document her experience and share it with others also demonstrate that women sought to move beyond being passive recipients of medical services and to engage actively with medical knowledge and practices. Zhang Mojun’s case is therefore significant in that it demonstrates one way in which female patients sought to develop medical agency during the formation of the modern professional medical system in China.

In the era of intelligent communication, algorithms and data have reshaped the communication ecosystem. Hosts are required to transform from one-way broadcasting to diverse scenarios including short videos, live-streaming e-commerce and metaverse social interaction. Taking "scenario" as the core perspective, this study adopts case studies and discourse analysis to investigate the professional practices of transformed hosts from mainstream media, top live-streaming sales anchors and vertical knowledge bloggers. It establishes a five-dimensional scenario literacy model covering scenario cognition, scenario adaptation, scenario construction, technological proficiency and humanistic persistence.The core aim of this research is to construct an Intelligent Communication Scenario Literacy Model for Chinese Hosts. It explores the theoretical definition and core dimensions of hosts’ "scenario literacy" in the intelligent communication era, as well as its specific manifestations in diverse intelligent communication scenarios such as short videos, live streaming and knowledge sharing. By comparing similarities and differences in literacy practices among various hosts, this paper attempts to form a referable theoretical framework for understanding hosts’ professional development under intelligent communication.Adopting qualitative research as the primary approach, the study mainly relies on the case study method. Three representative cases are selected according to the two-dimensional matrix of "scenario type" and "practice mode", with transformed practitioners from mainstream media as research objects. Discourse analysis serves as the major analytical method to conduct multimodal discourse analysis on typical video samples and interpret meaning construction via language, paralanguage and visual elements. The comparative method is applied throughout the research, including intra-group comparison. Supplemented by quantitative content analysis, manual statistics are carried out on indicators such as average speaking rate, opening information density and frequency of interactive guidance. All data are derived from publicly available video samples.

This study aims to clarify the semantic function and licensing conditions of the Korean -jida form corresponding to the Japanese passive -rareru form. To this end, Korean -jida forms corresponding to -rareru were analyzed and classified into five semantic types according to the nature of the resultant state established in the subject: (1) morphological and physical state change, (2) locational and situational change, (3) creation and formation, (4) social and linguistic establishment, and (5) cognition and evaluation. The analysis shows that the primary semantic function of the -jida form is to foreground a resultant state newly established in the subject after the completion of a preceding event or process. In other words, the -jida form backgrounds the agent’s action or activity and foregrounds the resultant state established in the subject. Despite differences in the nature of the resultant state, these five semantic types share this common semantic function. Furthermore, four licensing conditions were identified: (1) the predicate must semantically entail a resultant state of the subject; (2) the resultant state must be established directly in the grammatical subject itself; (3) the resultant state must be capable of being foregrounded independently of the agent’s action or activity; and (4) subject animacy is not an essential condition, since the -jida form can also occur with animate subjects when the resultant state is established directly in the subject. These findings demonstrate that the various correspondence patterns between the Japanese passive -rareru form and the Korean -jida form can be explained in terms of a unified semantic function and a common set of licensing conditions.

This paper has examined the reception of Chinese colloquial expressions in modern Japan through an analysis of the works of Tokutomi Roka. The findings reveal that, while demonstratives and interrogatives occur only infrequently, personal pronouns, forms of address, verb reduplication patterns such as kō-ikkō (‘to think over briefly’), as well as expressions including Ichigo Ichiju (一伍一什), the structural particle -chi (～地), Kikkyō (喫驚․吃驚, ‘to be startled’), and Shinko (真個, ‘truly’), all of which derive from Chinese vernacular literature, were received and employed to a considerable extent. Furthermore, many of these expressions have disappeared from present-day Japanese, making them valuable materials for investigating the formation of the modern Japanese lexicon. The reception of such vocabulary may be attributed to the tradition of Tōwagaku (the study of colloquial Chinese), which had been transmitted since the early modern period. Although Tokutomi Roka was strongly influenced by Western literature, he also maintained a deep interest in Chinese vernacular literature and actively incorporated its vocabulary and expressions into his own literary works. These findings demonstrate that, even during the period when Western learning flourished in modern Japan, the influence of Tōwagaku did not disappear but continued to survive within literary expression. Tokutomi Roka's works thus provide a concrete example of this linguistic and literary inheritance and constitute important materials for clarifying the process of the formation of modern Japanese. At the same time, the analysis suggests that the study of individual writers and their linguistic practices can shed further light on the complex interaction between Chinese vernacular literature, Tōwagaku, and modern Japanese literary language. Further comparative research involving other writers and texts from the same period will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how these inherited expressions were adapted, transformed, and eventually incorporated into, or excluded from, the modern Japanese lexicon.

This study examines the artistic career of Jeong Mal-jo (1907?1977), a Korean Nihonga painter born in colonial Korea and raised in Kyoto, from the perspective of the “boundary” between Japan and Korea. Jeong studied at the Kyoto City School of Arts and Crafts and the Kyoto City Specialist School of Painting. He later joined Shokosha, a private painting school led by Nishiyama Suisho, and developed as a Nihonga painter within the Kyoto art world. At the same time, he consistently depicted Korean people and customs. Because Jeong had lived in Japan since childhood, the Korea represented in his works cannot simply be regarded as a record of his native environment. He visited Korea intermittently to sketch its people and customs and reconstructed these subjects through the techniques of Nihonga acquired in Kyoto. His choice of Korean subject matter may have served as a means of engaging with his origins and distinguishing himself from Japanese painters. However, his representations were also shaped by the institutional framework and critical discourse of the Japanese art world. Contemporary critics described Jeong’s works using such expressions as “local atmosphere,” “the smell of the soil,” and “the characteristics of a person from the peninsula.” Kanzaki Kenichi compared Jeong with the Taiwanese painter Chen Chin, praising both for mastering Nihonga techniques while expressing distinctive local sentiments. This reveals the contradictory expectations imposed upon colonial artists: they were required to follow the technical standards of Nihonga while displaying cultural differences through their subject matter. Jeong’s position became more complex during the Asia-Pacific War. As a member of Shokosha, he participated in exhibitions associated with saikan hokoku, or “serving the nation through painting.” His 1943 work Yamato-gokoro combined symbols of Japan with the figures of a Korean man and woman. This work demonstrates how his representation of Korean figures intersected with wartime imperial ideology. For Jeong, the “boundary” was not a neutral position between two cultures, but a site where multiple and contradictory affiliations coexisted. His career reveals how imperial Nihonga incorporated colonial artists while simultaneously defining and differentiating them according to their colonial origins.

This study examines the structural characteristics of postwar Japan’s alien policy, focusing on the activities and discourse of Suzuki Hajime, who served as the head of postwar Japanese immigration administration and later as president of the Japan-Korea Amity Association (Nikkan Shinwakai, 日韓親和会). Appointed as the first Director-General of the Immigration Agency coming from a background as an agricultural and Imperial Household Agency bureaucrat, Suzuki defined the Zainichi Korean issue not as a secondary matter tied to diplomatic negotiations, but as an internal domestic challenge for Japan, grounded in bureaucratic rationalism. Moving away from the conventional paradigm of exclusion and one-sided assimilation, he envisioned a “minority politics of inclusion” centered on “management and protection” through relaxed naturalization and the granting of permanent residency. However, triggered by the inspection of U.S. immigration administration by Suzuki’s delegation, the fingerprinting system under the Alien Registration Act operated as a public-safety-oriented coercive mechanism centered on criminal penalties targeting Zainichi Koreans. Furthermore, even within the naturalization application procedure—which lacked explicit statutory grounds—ten-print fingerprinting was enforced through the administrative discretion of the Ministry of Justice. Consequently, even the procedural path chosen by Zainichi Koreans to escape status insecurity and daily surveillance ultimately required undergoing state public-safety verification and physical control. Ultimately, Suzuki’s paternalistic discourse of inclusion revealed a stark gap with the realities of administrative control, standing in contrast to his human rights rhetoric and the historical fact of his being awarded an Order of Diplomatic Service Merit by the South Korean government. As a result, by placing fingerprinting at the core intersection where the state's administrative and public-safety management mechanisms collide with fundamental individual human rights regarding the settlement of Zainichi Koreans, his vision demonstrates the dual structure of inclusion and control inherent in postwar Japan's alien policy.

This study comparatively examines the employment preparation experiences of Korean and Japanese university students through a qualitative comparative case study. Although both countries share common structural conditions, including the massification of higher education and prolonged economic stagnation, the processes through which students prepare for employment and transition into the labor market differ according to their institutional arrangements and sociocultural contexts. Based on in-depth interviews with Korean and Japanese university students, this study explores how they experience and construct their career pathways within these differing contexts. The findings reveal that in Japan, the mass simultaneous recruitment system (Shinsotsu Ikkatsu Saiy?) institutionalizes employment before graduation as the normative career pathway, while also generating anxiety about deviating from standardized career trajectories. In contrast, South Korean students experience prolonged employment preparation under rolling recruitment systems and an unstable labor market, resulting in intensified competition centered on achievement, continuous self-development, and anxiety arising from repeated rejection. These findings suggest that career decision-making is not merely an individual choice but a socially and institutionally constructed process shaped by labor market structures, educational systems, and sociocultural contexts. By qualitatively comparing the employment preparation experiences of Korean and Japanese university students, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how different institutional and cultural environments influence career formation and provides implications for university career education and youth employment policy.

This study examines the localization strategies and institutional practices of Brazilian cultural diplomacy through the case of Instituto Guimaraes Rosa at the Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo. While Brazil possesses abundant cultural resources, including music, cinema, literature, visual arts, football, food, multiculturalism, and the Portuguese language, the institutionalization of its cultural diplomacy remains relatively underexplored, particularly in East Asian contexts. Focusing on Japan, this study analyzes how Brazilian cultural diplomacy is practiced in a specific local setting shaped by Brazil-Japan migration history, the Brazilian community in Japan, Japanese interest in Brazilian music, and the existing but limited institutional basis for Portuguese-language education. Methodologically, this study draws on theoretical discussions of public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy, official documents and institutional materials related to Brazilian cultural diplomacy, and field research based on an in-depth interview with an official of Instituto Guimaraes Rosa in Tokyo. The findings show that Brazilian cultural diplomacy in Japan operates not as a centralized, state-led model, but rather as a network-based form of cultural diplomacy that connects local cultural demand, private actors, universities, cultural institutions, curators, corporate sponsors, artists, and the Brazilian diaspora. The study also reveals important institutional limitations. Brazilian cultural diplomacy still faces challenges related to the absence of a clear long-term strategy, limited centralized coordination, dependence on private sponsorship, and the difficulty of expanding Portuguese-language education in Japan. Nevertheless, the case of Instituto Guimaraes Rosa in Tokyo demonstrates the potential of Brazilian cultural diplomacy to adapt flexibly to local contexts and to reconfigure Brazil’s image through cooperation with local actors.