Utoro, Uji

Utoro
District
The district in 2009, before the significant renovation
Etymology: "A hollow"
Coordinates: 34°52′52″N 135°46′21″E / 34.88111°N 135.77250°E / 34.88111; 135.77250
Country	Japan
Prefecture	Kyoto
City	Uji
Population  (2021)
• Total	90 (Korean)
Website	www.utoro.jp/en/ (in English)

Utoro (Japanese: ウトロ地区, Hepburn: Utoro Chiku, Korean: 우토로) is a district in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The district has historically been populated by Zainichi Koreans (Koreans who arrived during the Japanese colonial period and their descendants) ever since they were compelled to work in difficult conditions in the area in 1943. Conditions in the district were poor until the early 2010s, when they significantly improved.

When Korea was liberated at the end of World War II in 1945, many Koreans across Japan could not afford the trip back to Korea or were apprehensive of returning to the significant instability and poverty on the newly divided peninsula. Around 1,300 people stayed illegally in the district as squatters. Despite poor conditions, Koreans from across Japan moved into the village, as it was somewhere where they could support each other.

In the 1960s, the company Nissan Shatai owned the land. It tried numerous tactics to have the villagers leave, but these efforts were rebuffed. In 1987, Nissan Shatai transferred ownership of the land to the private company Western Japan Development (西日本殖産). The company sued to evict the villagers in the late 1980s. The villagers eventually lost the case after a decade-long legal battle, although they continued to resist eviction efforts. They embarked on a domestic and international fundraising and awareness campaign that was highly successful. A number of people in the Korean diaspora reportedly saw their story as representative of broader systemic discrimination against Koreans in Japan. With assistance from local Japanese advocates, international advocates, and the South Korean government, they negotiated with the Uji government for the construction of public housing and infrastructure and gathered enough funds to purchase parts of the land. In 2010 and 2011, they purchased land in the district, which made them legal occupants for the first time.

Living conditions improved significantly over the following decade. Two new apartment blocks have since been constructed for the villagers. In 2022, the Utoro Peace Memorial Museum (ウトロ平和祈念館, 우토로평화기념관), a museum covering the history of the village, was constructed in the district. The villagers report to being happy with these changes, although they have continued to be the target of anti-Korean sentiment. In 2021, a man set fire to an empty building in the area. He admitted to being influenced by Japanese ultranationalist internet posts that stoked his dislike of Korean people, and was sentenced to four years in prison in 2022. Doubt has been expressed that the district will continue to be a Korean enclave, as the population of Koreans living there has aged and the Uji government owns the housing on the lot. By 2021, the Korean population in the area was 90.