An ethnic Korean singer has said that she hopes the transformation of her hometown, from a site fighting decades of discrimination to a place promoting peace and human rights, will lead to Japanese society becoming more inclusive.
Chong Ami, who was a member of the major Japanese theater group Shiki Theatre Company for more than 10 years, sang "Arirang" during a ceremony marking the opening of a museum chronicling the history of her hometown Utoro on Saturday.
The singing of the well-known Korean folk song was meant to take the place of the "national anthem" usually performed at ceremonies, said the third-generation Korean resident. Utoro is a community formed during World War II by laborers from the Korean Peninsula, then under Japanese rule, who were constructing an airfield.