Home › Articles› Abstract
Research Article

A Study on the Spatiality of Ikuno Ward and the Memory of the Zainichi Korean Diaspora as Represented in Pachinko

Namseok Kim

Department of Korean Language and Literature, Pukyong National University

Published: July 2026 · Vol. 45 No. 2 · pp. 55-100

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33334/sieas.2026.45.2.55

Abstract

This study analyzes Osaka’s Ikuno Ward as represented in the Apple TV+ original series Pachinko, focusing on the ways in which this space organizes the memory and identity of the Zainichi Korean diaspora and on the meanings produced through this process. While previous studies on Pachinko have largely focused on character-centered narratives, intergenerational conflict, or representations of identity, this study takes Ikuno Ward as its object of analysis from the perspective that space constitutes a core condition through which narrative is structured. To this end, the study first examines the formation and transformation of Ikuno Ward within the historical and social context of labor migration during the Japanese colonial period and structural exclusion in postwar Japanese society, and then analyzes the patterns through which Ikuno Ward is spatially represented in Pachinko. The analysis shows that Ikuno Ward in the series does not function merely as a background setting but operates as an “internal colony” in which the colonial experience and postwar exclusion of modern Japanese history have become fixed within the urban interior, thereby functioning as a structural condition that constrains the lives, choices, and identity formation of the characters. In addition, this space is represented as a site of memory in which poverty, labor, and communal solidarity and tension are multilayeredly accumulated, and it is presented as a field in which diasporic memory is continuously renewed through the repetition of everyday life and practices of survival. Through this analysis, this study seeks to reposition Pachinko beyond a narrative of a Zainichi Korean family, framing it instead as a text that spatially reflects on the structural contradictions of postcolonial Japanese society, and to contribute to expanding the importance of spatial analysis within diaspora studies.
Keywords: Pachinko(Apple TV+ original series)Ikuno WardSpatial RepresentationInternal ColonyZainichi Korean Diaspora