“I teach Korean literature in Japan.”
Professor Koh Young-ran of the Department of Japanese Literature at Nihon University's 32 Years of Living in Tokyo

When I say that I work in the Department of Japanese Literature, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Nihon University, people always ask me.
When you say "Korean literature," do you mean Korean literature? No, it's Japanese literature.
If you answer like this, they will immediately ask you again.
A foreigner teaching Japanese literature? Do you lecture in English? Did you graduate from college in the United States? Are you a Korean-American? No, the lectures are in Japanese.
Ah… … You’re a Zainichi Korean.
Every moment the same questions are asked and the same answers are repeated.
Whether in Japan or Korea, my self-introduction is never simple.

What questions would you like to ask the author, who is currently a professor of Korean literature in Japan?

What steps are required to become a professor in Japan?
How do the reading habits of Korean and Japanese students differ?
Do you also teach Korean literature to Japanese students?
Among Japanese literature, which author do you find particularly fascinating or study?
Are works written by Koreans in Japan Korean literature or Japanese literature?
What is the biggest difference you feel in your life in Japan?
What were some of the inconveniences of living as a Korean in Japanese society?

I wrote this with the hope that it will provide honest answers to your questions based on my 32 years of living in Japan.

After graduating from Chonnam National University, he entered the graduate school of Japanese Language and Literature at Kyunghee University.
I was surprised to learn that students I met in graduate school practiced their conversation skills by repeatedly recording Japanese television dramas and variety shows.
The department office was filled with popular Japanese manga such as “City Hunter” and “Slam Dunk.”
--- p.24

My first trip to Japan was at the end of 1992.
At that time, the Department of Japanese Language and Literature at Kyunghee University had its students participate in the Magpie Project (かちがらす計?), hosted by the Earth Citizens Association (地球市民の?), an NPO located in Saga Prefecture, Kyushu.
The group helped Korean college students experience the Japanese New Year by spending the year-end and New Year holidays with ordinary families in Saga Prefecture.
As a teaching assistant in the Japanese Language Department, I led undergraduate students and participated in welcoming the New Year of 1993 in Saga Prefecture.
The place I was assigned to was a fishing village called Chinjeicho.
--- p.31

Although no one said it out loud, there was a considerable aversion to the smell of raw garlic, especially the smell of kimchi.
I was making kimchi stew with the windows open on a hot day, and suddenly I heard the sound of windows being slammed nervously here and there.
It was clear that if I added more, there would be a complaint from the landlord.
I didn't have the confidence to go back to looking for a new home once my contract was up, so I stopped making food that I was concerned about smelling.
--- p.54

In 2010, I became a full-time professor in the Department of Japanese Literature at Nihon University.
It was a greeting that was almost a miracle.
In 1994, when I came as an exchange student, all fourteen professors in our department were men.
It was in the 2000s that a female professor was appointed, and I was the fourth woman to do so.
The Department of Japanese Literature at Nihon University is relatively better.
At the time, the only foreigner who taught Japanese literature under the same conditions as native Japanese speakers was Professor Robert Campbell, a famous researcher of modern literature, and I was the first to learn about modern and contemporary Japanese literature.
--- p.68

“I am a novelist who writes in Japanese.
“Please issue me a long-term stay visa.”
Is this really possible in Japan? Do foreign novelists who write in Japanese have an advantage in visa issuance compared to other foreigners? There are certain requirements for foreigners applying for a work visa in Japan.
In addition to economic independence, you must prove how useful you are to society.
--- p.78

There are about 140 new students in the Department of Japanese Literature at Nihon University.
If you are a first-year homeroom teacher, you will attend orientation, call each student by name, and have them introduce themselves.
The student roster must clearly state how to read the student's name in hiragana.
It's not because I'm a foreigner.
Even my colleagues who were born and raised in Japan make sure to check how to pronounce the names of the students they are in charge of.
--- p.157

Given the potential for currency to spark diplomatic disputes, the reason Higuchi Ichiyo could become the face of Japan was because he died the year after the First Sino-Japanese War.
Higuchi Ichiyo was active as a writer for only about four years.
He died at the age of twenty-four, and was free from discriminatory views toward colonies such as Joseon, cooperation in wars of aggression, or socialist ideology.
--- p.178

Students are free to choose their own thesis text.
If you choose a text in your third year, you will receive almost personal tutoring for two years, and your partner will be in their early 20s.
Science fiction, light novels, girls' novels, coming-of-age novels, fairy tales, fantasy, and horror, which I didn't enjoy reading much before, are popular, and I'm more interested in contemporary novels than modern novels.
To guide them, you need to read not only the works but also related books and major papers to understand the flow.
What I still can't forget is Tetsuya Asada's "Mahjong Wanderings."
I admit that mahjong is well intertwined with the historical background of Japan's war of aggression and post-war economic growth, but having never played mahjong before, I found it really difficult to understand the mahjong board and scenes of playing mahjong visualized like a Go record.
I received special lessons from an acquaintance who likes mahjong.
How much I wanted to cry while reading the four volumes of the novel.
Some students chose novels that glorified the deaths of kamikaze pilots, such as Naoki Hakuta's "Eternal Zero."
Students who choose me as their thesis advisor are open-minded and committed to studying war issues diligently.
As it turned out, the student had mistaken this novel for a twist novel, and after meeting and discussing it several times over the course of six months, he changed it to a different novel.
During the nearly 15 years I have been guiding graduate theses, I have read, discussed, and guided many works that I would never have chosen.
Even today, there are always students who choose truly rare pieces that make them ask, “Where did you find this piece?”
It is thanks to these times that I can read and speak about novels of various genres.
Students are precious teachers who teach me literature.
Today, as always, the fight with them continues in the classroom.
--- pp.219-220

More interesting than the changing perception of Korea and the resulting outward Koreanization of the younger generation is the similarity in self-awareness among the relatively young generations of both countries.
Judging from the reactions of Japanese readers who enjoy reading Korean literature, Korean literature is not literature that came from a foreign country across the sea.
I project myself onto the characters and empathize with them as if it were my own story.
I gained confidence through Japanese readers who read “Kim Ji-young, Born 1982.”
--- p.225

“What’s important is the mindset to keep going even when you’re broken.”
This is a phrase written on an acrylic magnet that I found by chance in the stationery corner of Kyobo Bookstore in Jongno.
While writing this article, I searched the Internet.
‘Jungkeokma’, I learned another new word.
It's said to be a popular saying in Korea in 2022.
I put this magnet in a visible place and read it out loud quietly from time to time.

--- p.248