Ōkubo,Shin-Ōkubo Tokyo
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Shin-Ōkubo: Tokyo's historic ethnic Korean neighborhood.
Shin-Ōkubo (新大久保?) is a neighborhood within Tokyo's Shinjuku ward known for its extensive Korean community. It is built around Shin-Ōkubo Station and is accessible on the Yamanote Line. Shin-Ōkubo is home to both Korean residents in Japan as well as Korean immigrants, and has seen an upsurge in popularity due to Hallyu pop-culture. Unlike most of the Tokyo metropolitan area, where signs are bilingual Japanese and English, many signs in Shin-Ōkubo are trilingual: Korean, Japanese and English.
Shin-Ōkubo Station (新大久保駅 Shin-Ōkubo-eki?) is a railway station on the Yamanote Line in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East).[1] Opened on November 15, 1914, it is close to the large local Korea ethnic neighborhood. Shin-Ōkubo station has only one exit.
Koreatown Tokyo
According to official statistics in 2002, the Korean population in Tokyo amounted to 80,000, which was the second largest following that of Osaka.
Tokyo's Korean-oriented commercial centre is located in the district of Okubo around the area of Shin-Okubo Station and Okubo Station in Shinjuku Ward. Shinjuku Ward itself has over 14,201 registered Korean residents[4] this is over 20% of the registered Korean residents in Tokyo; Unlike other Japanese Koreatowns, the Okudo Koreatown developed after World War II and is dominated by "new-comers" - recent immigrants from South Korea who have retained their ethnic and cultural identity, as can be seen from the ubiquitous signs written in hangul.
One of the contributing factors in the development of Okubo into a Korean area is the low rents and a reputation as a seedy area with many Love Hotels south of Okubo station. The low rents and willingness of landlords to accept foreign tenants has attached Korean and other Asian migrants to the area [5] . These Businesses cater of the migrant community and increasingly Japanese who come to experience ethnic cuisine. Other immigrants from China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and various other nationalities makes this one of the most colourful and multicultural areas in Tokyo.
The area around Mikawashima station on the Jōban Line, to the north of the city, is a Koreatown dominated by Zainichi immigrants from Jeju island.
Also noteworthy is a smaller-scale Zainichi Korean quarter to the southeast of Ueno station, and to the southwest, a community of South Korean "new-comers".
