SIETAR-Kansai - Past Monthly Programs

May 2005

Responses to Marginality in Japan: The Entrepreneurship Alternative

Date:
May 21, 2005 Saturday 18:00-20:00

Presenter:
Professor Soo Im Lee (Ryukoku University)

Place:
Takatsuki Shiritsu Sogo Shimin Koryu Center, Room 2
(1 minute walk from JR Takatsuki Station)

TEL. (0726) 85-3721

Fee:
Members and Students 500 Yen, Non-members 1,000 Yen

Language:
Japanese

Description of the Program:
Koreans live invisibly in Japan. Using Japanese pass-names to avoid severe discrimination, the Korean presence in Japanese society, unspoken and taboo, is an uncomfortable reminder to the Japanese that their colonial past is not so far away. Few avenues for economic or social mobility have been available for Koreans, who comprise Japan's largest ethnic minority. Tough, resilient, energetic, and innovative, Korean minority entrepreneurs in Japan have succeeded against great odds and in the face of an extremely challenging social milieu. The characteristics of minority Korean entrepreneurship in Japan contain important lessons for entrepreneurs in other settings where resident ethnic minorities face the brunt of racism, ignorance, and poverty. Although a minority within a minority, the majority of Koreans in Japan being working class and poor, successful Korean entrepreneurs demonstrate a phenomenal grasp of the requirements of entrepreneurship: flexibility, pride, courage, confidence, energy, and vision.

Profile of the Presenter:
Soo im Lee is professor of Department of Business Administration, Ryukoku University, Kyoto. In 2003-04 she was Visiting Fellow in the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University and Visiting Researcher at the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University. She is the author of the series of Kokuren Eigo Kentei Taisakusho and preparation book for TOEIC by Ikubundo. Recent publications: Kikagyosei ni mirareru nihonseifu no kankoku, ch

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