I'm not sure that you can really claim "朝鮮人" as a particularly racist term. Zainichi are divided into citizens of North and South Korea- the South Koreans are 韓国人 from 韓国 and the North Koreans are 朝鮮人 from 北朝鮮, self-identified, not just externally.

Would these rightwing 2chrs prefer the nationally confusing Onishi, or the typical whitebread foreign correspondent that doesn't know the language or culture at all?

If he had refused to be critical of Japan, they wouldn't have questioned his racial makeup in the first place.

"朝鮮人" could be used with racist connotations (according to my coworker, in Tokyo, but not necessarily in Kansai.) It's not the "n-word" but it's not the polite expression either.

Also, I am not sure there is proof that Ohnishi is Korean. One page was claiming, "He moved to Canada, and Montreal has a big Koreatown. Most Japanese do not move abroad."

One time in a tunnel near my apartment someone spray painted graffiti denouncing 朝鮮人 and 部落民 while praising one of the Zen sects (my memory's bad, but Rinzai maybe?) and a temple of theirs in Kyoto (the Daitoku-ji perhaps?). I never got a good explanation of how that works…

Well, looking him up on Wikipedia gets you some very amusing results.

The Japanese wiki entry (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E8%A5%BF%E5%93%B2%E5%85%89)
is a barebones factual bio staying that he was born in Ichikawa, Chiba-ken and moved with his family to Canada at the age of 4, with no hint of Korean nationality. It then summarizes his reporting career.

Now, the English entry is just hilarious- I'll post the text here since the good people at Wiki will probably remove this innacurate and insulting article before long.

Norimitsu Onishi (Japanese Katakana: ノリミツ・オオニシ, Kanji: 大西哲光) is a Canadian newspaper reporter. He is currently the chief correspondent of Tokyo branch office of The New York Times, and staff writer for the Seoul Times. He was allegedly born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan and immigrated to Montreal, Canada at the age of four with his parents. His surname ‘Onishi’ is apparently Japanese, but until now it is unknown exactly what his origin is. Thus, there is some rumor on the internet that he is a Korean descendant.[1] One reason for that is he has refused to do the interviews of any kind of the Japanese press. Besides, purportedly, he never reads about the opinions from Japanese readers. He is quite famous for his anti-Japanese articles for the New York Times and others. His article, LETTER FROM ASIA; Why Japan Seems Content to Be Run by One Party on September 7, 2005[2] invoked an official objection statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan as “an incorrect article.”[3] Since the branch office of the New York Times in which he works is the same building as the Asahi Shimbun of Tokyo, his reports are usually quoted and reprinted as the viewpoint of the New York Times by dissident papers like the Asahi Shimbun to find faults with the Japanese society in the respective editorials, for which he has often been criticized by Japanese conservatives.[4]

Daitokuji is a headquarters of Rinzai-shu, which is well known as having been the primary sect of the Shogun and elite warriors of much of the samurai period. I have no idea why Daitokuji would be so particularly favored by the rightists though. I think it may be the temple where Sen no Rikyu committed seppuku, which I suppose might get them off a bit.

One of Onishi's cardinal sins is that he has an office at the Asahi Shimbun. To the right-wing, that's like JCP headquarters.

I don't know if Norimitsu Onishi is a secret Korean, but looking at his past articles, it seems like most of his articles about Japan are highly critical, while most of his articles about Korea are full of optimism and praise.

Look at his output, I can see why the Nativist Right would be angry. This "Korean" angle is much like saying "the Jews are behind the New York Times" - which if you browse that Deux-Chanel thread, you will also find slightly bandied about.

Fantasy scenario - unable to ignore the Unification connections spread by Kikko (who among other things I believe is something of a DPJ shill), Abe's cabinet loses public confidence, forcing a Lower House election. Voters reject an LDP compromised by Korean/cult interests and just like that we have Ozawa in the kantei!

I seriously doubt that longtime LDP voters will suddenly reject their party because of the Unification Church. It's not like that sex cult or something!

My wife says that "朝鮮人" is a North Korean, but it is very rude to call South Koreans that...

Maybe sort of a "don't lump us in with those assholes" kind of thing.

Wouldn't you call them "北朝鮮人"?

My gf thought chosenjin was a racist word, but she couldn't explain why. She said that older people would consider it racist, but younger people might not.

Alright, we had a more detailed conversation about this. This was more complicated than I thought.

She agrees that "朝鮮人" is sometimes racist, but mostly for older people. She thinks it was a more generic term for 'Korean', maybe 50-75 years ago. (Chosen Peninsula People)

She said now when she hears "朝鮮人", she thinks of North Koreans, not South Koreans (or all Koreans). Maybe this is because of the negative image of North Korea? This was more of a feeling for her, hard to quantify.

I'm confused as everyone else now.

RE: the Kikko claim, think this poster has got it about right (from http://sensouhantai.blog25.fc2.com/blog-entry-170.html):

わたしも　「きっこのブログ」からきました。
こちらにコメントを寄せている大半の方が
こちらと　きっこさんの不正確さを
判っていらっしゃるようで安心しました。
（きっこさんのは　参考になることも稀に
ありますけど。）
朝日の書評を上げている方は　論外なので。

Should be "exculpates", not "explicates" the Japanese people.

/nitpicking better bloggers makes me feel important

Before the North/South division, all of Korea was "Chosen" and all Koreans were "Chosenjin" in Japanese. While a North Korean citizen may be referred to as having 北朝鮮国籍、朝鮮人 in a modern context is probably meant to suggest North Koreans, or in a historial context (i.e. pre WW2) to suggest residents of the entire penninsula. 朝鮮民族 properly refers to "the Korean people," but 朝鮮人 is still used sometimes as a generic term, particularly referring to ethnic Koreans in Japan, and possibly other Korean diaspora communities.

Since Onishi is also being attacked for "connections" to the left-leaning Asahi (a front for the JCP!) then surely they would be accusing him of being not a South, but a North Korean.

Here's a Japanese blog entry accusing Koizumi of being an ethnic Korean.
http://m.finance.livedoor.com/category/sled/c/15_12_265

Should be "exculpates", not "explicates" the Japanese people.

I will change that, thanks.

こちらと　きっこさんの不正確さを
判っていらっしゃるようで安心しました。

Saying that one book borrows the title of another cannot go much farther than speculation. I don't think Kikko's inaccuracies really soften the fact that Abe is connected to the Unification Church.

My impression with 朝鮮人 is that it is the old term for Koreans, and since South Koreans have decided not to be "朝鮮人" anymore, calling them that is like calling African-Americans "Negros" - which was not always an offensive term, but is now because the group itself has rejected it.

[My impression with 朝鮮人 is that it is the old term for Koreans, and since South Koreans have decided not to be "朝鮮人" anymore, calling them that is like calling African-Americans "Negros" - which was not always an offensive term, but is now because the group itself has rejected it.]

I would not so easily state that "innocent" words like 朝鮮人 (or Negro/fag/take your pick!) only become "wrong" when rejected by the interpellated.

Terms cannot be extricated from the contexts in which they are applied and 朝鮮人 carries the weight of on-going racism and a not very distant imperial past. I am not living in Japan now and can't gauge the connotations -- but, I am still not convinced that the word is 100% not racist or *only* referring to NKoreans.

Btw, I'm sorry - I don't know how to block quote on this commenting page!

Historically, there are a ton of names for kingdoms on the Korean peninsula: 朝鮮, 韓, 百済, 新羅, and 高麗. In English, we just took the last name, mangled it into the word, "Korea" and labeled the whole peninsula with it, but elsewhere, it was never really clear which of the many names was the best one to use. The North Koreans and the South Koreans have chosen to label themselves as the Joseon and the Han respectively, which leaves the Japanese in a pickle as to which is the term to use for the continent as whole which will piss people off the least. Probably in the long term, the best bet is just to Anglicize it as コリア or something… …except when they tried to do that with China (as 支那) it became thought of as a racist term after the war. Of course, there is one other way around it.

Marxy: Calling a South Korean 朝鮮人 is probably going to be offensive, but like I said, this anonymous person was probably using the term to say that Onishi is a North Korean agent. Of course, that's offensive in an entirely different way.

I think the question is, can 朝鮮人 be an offensive term that does not even mean "North Korean" but just a derogatory term for Koreans? Seems like the answer is yes.

We could also open a look at the conspiracy theory that the Japanese forced "Corea" to become "Korea" to be in front of their colony in Western alphabetical listings, but I am sure another website can pick that up in much greater detail.

Momus' fiancee Hisae is half-Korean. Momus, does she have any thoughts on the matter? Experience of discrimination or identity issues?

Momus is post-racism. You can't hear ethnic slurs over the din of 50 million LOHASers knitting sweaters with organic wool.

Here's a pretty exhaustive treatment (at least for a blog and not a thesis) of the Corea/Korea myth.

Where?

Montreal has the most pathetic Asian diaspora population I've ever seen, more or less a K-town. Their Chinatown sucked, and their Korean restaurants *shudder* If they're going to try to concot a myth of the evil "Korean-Japanese", their strawman should have moved to Toronto or Vancouver.

Does her "Korean" parent identify as Korean? Is s/he recently immigrated? Or is she one several gen Korean-Japanese? Or Korean-Some Other Country? If we were to discuss Japanese who have Korean blood in them, that would be a list longer than most would think and it would include the Royal Family. Ah, Japan. I waver between calling their fear of Korea grotesque to ridiculous. It's prolly both.

The thing is, words like 朝鮮 and シナ are often and only used by right-wing people. They say they are using those words without racist connotations and tend to claim that those words should be as fine as words like 朝鮮半島, 朝鮮人参, シナチク, 東シナ海 still are.
"Balanced" people won't bother using those words unless that is the subject.

Well the "Chosenjin" thing without a doubt reminds the subject that a couple generations back they were once Japanese subjects. I'm sure it's not too great a stretch to imply that someone being looked down on might be better off if they had remined so.

For what it's worth the issue with von Braun wasn't that he designed weapons. Generally that's "a good thing". Protests would just bring up some very real ethics over over Allied targeting of Japanese and German population centers. The punishable dilemma with him was in his blamability regarding the slave labor expended to build the weapons.

Anyone see the thing about Kikko deleting a blog entry on the day Hisahito was born, saying that Kiko had repeated abortions until they were sure she had a boy (fetus)?

The better, more plausible conspiracy theory is that the child was sex-selected.

From your comments, I take it that you do not like Kikko, or any sort of Japan-related dissent.

I don't have any problem with 'Japan-related dissent' as long as evidence is provided along with the criticism--which Kikko assuredly does not. If a person says, things aren't as they appear, they are bad, and everyone is being fooled, I think that person owes it to readers to provide references and evidence. Otherwise it's just speculation or gossip, which I like as much as anyone else but which shouldn't be considered factual.