Early history Just after World War II, the area was considered a slum, and filled with unlicensed shacks. Its residents were then mostly Japanese; a small number of Korean and Chinese people lived there while working as laborers. Around the 1950s, after Zainichi Korean businessman
Shin Kyuk-ho established a
Lotte confectionary factory in the area, more Zainichis congregated in the area to work there. The good access to transportation and lower cost of rent in the area made it popular with immigrants. The area came to be popularly called "Koreatown" around the time of the
2002 FIFA World Cup, which South Korea and Japan jointly hosted. Prime Ministers Yoshiro Mori and other government officials bowed at a memorial for Lee on January 29, 2001. the film was famously viewed by
Emperor Akihito and
Empress Michiko. By 2021, the fund had assisted 998 students. The area has become a center for Japanese people interested in Korean culture. Lee Seung-min, chair of a Korean association in the area, World OKTA (), said in 2014 that his Korean language learning school had had more than 10,000 students since 1996. After a controversial 2012 visit by South Korean president
Lee Myung-bak to the contested
Liancourt Rocks, there was a significant boycott of Korea-related businesses in Japan. The area was affected by these boycotts, and
far-right Japanese nationalist groups participated in
anti-Korean protests in the area. Korean businesses in the area reportedly almost halved in number around this time. In 2020, the area saw an increase in visitors after the success of the Korean drama
Crash Landing on You. In 2022, it was reported that the area had fully recovered from the 2012 onwards drop in sales, and had even seen an increase in the number of Korea-related businesses. ==Economy==