Mindan or the Korean Residents Union in Japan, is the name of one of two main organizations for Koreans living in Japan

Zainichi Korean

Koreans in Japan are the ethnic Korean residents of Japan. They currently constitute the second largest ethnic minority group in Japan. The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans, also often known as Zainichi for short, who are the permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan...

, the other being Chongryon

Chongryon

The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan , abbreviated to Chongryon The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chae Ilbon Chosŏnin Ch'ongryŏnhaphoe in Korean or Zai-Nihon Chōsenjin Sōrengōkai in Japanese), abbreviated to Chongryon The General Association of Korean Residents...

. Mindan has ties to South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 and was established in 1946 in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Japan. Currently, among 610,000 Korean residents in Japan who have not adopted Japanese nationality, 65 percent are members of Mindan, and another 25 percent are members of Chongryon.

Mindan members prefer the modern term

Names of Korea

There are various names of Korea in use today, derived from ancient kingdoms and dynasties. The modern English name Korea is an exonym derived from the Goryeo period and is used by both North Korea and South Korea in international contexts...

 Kankoku (韓国) to be used when discussing Korea. Chongryon members, some of whom are North Korean fellow travellers, prefer the older term Chōsen

Chosen

Chosen can mean:*Chosen people, people who believe they have been chosen by a higher power to do a certain thing including**Jews as a chosen people-Korean:...

(朝鮮). Because Chōsen was the term used during the Japanese occupation of Korea, but North Korea does not recognize Kankoku, this causes enmity between the groups.

Activities

• Mindan provided food supplies for the victims suffered from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
  2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
  The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately east...
  
  .

See also

• Japan-Korea relations
  Japan-Korea relations
  Korea-Japan relations are the relations between Korea and Japan. In a modern context, these relations pertain to three states: Japan, North Korea, and South Korea. Japan and Korea have had cultural interactions for over a thousand years and direct political contact almost as long...
  
  
• Ethnic issues in Japan
  Ethnic issues in Japan
  - Demographic :About 1.6% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign nationals. Of these, according to 2008 data from the Japanese government, the principal groups are as follows....
  
  
• Koreatowns in Japan
• Korean diaspora (a.k.a. 'Dongpo' or 'Gyopo')

External links

• Korean Residents Union in Japan (MINDAN) (Korean, Japanese, English)
• History of Mindan (English)
• Online Newspaper covering Zainichi Korean and Mindan (English)
• Republic of Korea (ROK) Embassy in Japan (Korean / Japanese)