Kang Sang-jung (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 강상중,

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

: 姜尙中; Japanese name - which Kang used until his undergraduate days - Nagano Tetsuo (永野鉄男) 1950) is a second-generation

Zainichi Korean comprise ethnic Koreans who have permanent residency status in Japan or who have become Japanese citizens, and whose immigration to Japan originated before 1945, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South ...

political scientist, writer and public commentator. He has been an academic at several Japanese universities including the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

(1996-2013), and President of

Seigakuin University is a private university in Ageo, Saitama, Japan, established in 1988. The motto is "Love God and Serve His People." The university bases its ideals on Protestant Christianity. The former Seigakuin Atlanta International School was an internationa ...

(2013-2015). He is currently Chairman of the Board of Kumamoto Prefectural Theatre.

Biography

The third son of a Korean migrant from the

Masan Masan is an administrative region of Changwon, a city in the South Gyeongsang Province. It was formerly an independent city from 1949 until 30 June 2010, when it was absorbed to Changwon along with Jinhae. Masan was redistricted as two district ...

area of Korea, Kang was born and grew up in

Kumamoto is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,000, ...

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

. He has described his childhood experiences in his autobiography "Zainichi", published in 1994. After studying at

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

, he was an exchange student at the University of Nurnberg,

Erlangen Erlangen (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian language, Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative d ...

in the then

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. His encounters with the families of

migrant workers A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant workers who work outsi ...

in Germany had a lasting influence on his understanding of Zainichi Korean identity. After returning to Japan, he was involved in the protest movement against the compulsory fingerprinting of foreign residents in the early 1980s. He lectured at

Meiji Gakuin University is a Christian university in Tokyo and Yokohama that was established in 1863. The Reverend Dr. James Curtis Hepburn was one of its founders and served as the first president. The novelist and poet Shimazaki Toson graduated from this colleg ...

and

International Christian University is a non-denominational private university located in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan, commonly known as ICU. With the efforts of Prince Takamatsu, General Douglas MacArthur, and BOJ President Hisato Ichimada, ICU was established in 1949 as the first ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, before being appointed to the

. In 2013 he retired from the University of Tokyo to take up the position of University Professor a
Seigakuin University
in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo. Kang's early work focused on the political and social thought of

Max Weber Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...

. He has written extensively on the subject of Zainichi Korean identity,

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

and its problems, and the relationship between Japan and North Korea. He is also an enthusiastic proponent of Northeast Asian regional integration. Within the Japanese linguistic sphere, he is one of the most outspoken critics of

Japanese Nationalism is a form of nationalism that asserts the belief that the Japanese are a monolithic nation with a single immutable culture, and promotes the cultural unity of the Japanese. Over the last two centuries, it has encompassed a broad range of ideas a ...

and

United States Imperialism American imperialism refers to the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, and media influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conquest ...

. Related to this, he has been characterized in some right-wing Japanese magazines as being a "supporter" of North Korea. Kang himself, however, vigorously contests this, pointing out that his writings have consistently criticized dictatorships, both Right-wing and Left-wing.For Kang's views on North Korea, see "The First Agonizing Steps Towards Stabilizing Northeast Asia", Japan Focus, 2002 , and "Overcoming Japan-North Korea Relations", Shueisha Publishers, 2002 His other major works include "Beyond Orientalism" (Iwanami, 1996), "The Perspective of Globalization" (Iwanami, 2001, co-authored with Yoshimi Shunya), and "Nationalism" (Iwanami, 2001). Kang is widely known as a media commentator in Japan, and has presented a number of TV documentary programs on issues including contemporary Korean society and the problems of nuclear power. His writings include the major bestsellers - "Nayamu Chikara" ("Thee Power of Disquiet", Shueisha 2008) and "Kokoro" ("Heart", Shueisha 2013). The second, a novel centred on the events of the 11 March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, is a profound reflection on the human response to death, and on the search for meaning in the face of suffering and loss. His recent works include influential reassessments of the life and work of the famous novelist

Natsume Sōseki , born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known around the world for his novels ''Kokoro'', '' Botchan'', ''I Am a Cat'', '' Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work '' Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of British literature and writer ...

: among them "Soseki no Kotoba" ("The Words of Soseki", Shueisha 2016).

References

External links

Kang Sang-jung Official Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kang, Sang-Jung 1950 births Living people People from Kumamoto Academic staff of the University of Tokyo Waseda University alumni Academic staff of Waseda University Zainichi Korean people Japanese political scientists Academic staff of Meiji Gakuin University