This paper demonstrates how residential communities that are inclusive of minority populations contribute to the construction of collective empathy and sustainable diversity-accommodating communities based on embodied transcultural sisterhood. Based on interviews and ethnographic work undertaken at a civic initiative that caters to elderly Zainichi Korean women (i.e., women of Korean descent) in Japan, this paper contemplates reconciliation, healing, and everydayness as the basis of community building. Participants in this community service negotiate boundaries within a society that is dominated by a patriarchal and ethnonationalist order. Interethnic and intergenerational participants engage in activities that focus on producing meaning within this discursive space in pursuit of a common future and new ways to relate to one another by integrating memories of the past. Rather than espousing explicit advocacy for identity politics, women autonomously find ways to share their stories free from the influence of hegemonic narratives.

Keywords

Zainichi Korean, political ontology, civil society, reconciliation, sisterhood, transculturality