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David Rands's book tells multiple important stories which address several essential questions about the nature of Tokyo and Osaka, the place of minorities in a Japan that still defines itself as a homogeneous society, and the ways in which urban communities come into being and define themselves. In other words, Rands addresses core questions about why and how two of the largest cities in the world function as they do, why and how a society with long-standing minority groups numbering in the hundreds of thousands still staunchly maintains a self-identity that is homogeneously mono-ethnic, and why and how communities emerge as the basic building blocks of cities. By writing with depth and insight about the complex histories of the presence of Koreans in Tokyo and Osaka, Rands addresses some of the most pressing concerns of contemporary thinking about the twenty-first-century city. -- Blair Ruble, Vice President for Programs, Woodrow Wilson Center

David Rands's book tells multiple important stories which address several essential questions about the nature of Tokyo and Osaka, the place of minorities in a Japan that still defines itself as a homogeneous society, and the ways in which urban communities come into being and define themselves. In other words, Rands addresses core questions about why and how two of the largest cities in the world function as they do, why and how a society with long-standing minority groups numbering in the hundreds of thousands still staunchly maintains a self-identity that is homogeneously mono-ethnic, and why and how communities emerge as the basic building blocks of cities. By writing with depth and insight about the complex histories of the presence of Koreans in Tokyo and Osaka, Rands addresses some of the most pressing concerns of contemporary thinking about the twenty-first-century city. -- Blair Ruble, Vice President for Programs, Woodrow Wilson Center Much that has been written on Japan's Korean population has focused on intra-class differences among Koreans or inter-ethnic differences between Koreans and Japanese. David Rand's well-researched inquiry offers a fresh perspective to this minority's history by contrasting its spatial development in Japan's most important commercial and political centers, Osaka and Tokyo. In its tracing of the formation of these zainichi centers from the early twentieth century to the postwar period, Function-Based Spatiality and the Development of Korean Communities in Japan underlines the diversity that this population contributes to 'homogeneous' Japanese society. This study should find an eager audience in Japan-Korea relations studies, but also urban development studies, as well. -- Mark Caprio, Rikkyo University, author of Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945

David Rands's book tells multiple important stories which address several essential questions about the nature of Tokyo and Osaka, the place of minorities in a Japan that still defines itself as a homogeneous society, and the ways in which urban communities come into being and define themselves. In other words, Rands addresses core questions about why and how two of the largest cities in the world function as they do, why and how a society with long-standing minority groups numbering in the hundreds of thousands still staunchly maintains a self-identity that is homogeneously mono-ethnic, and why and how communities emerge as the basic building blocks of cities. By writing with depth and insight about the complex histories of the presence of Koreans in Tokyo and Osaka, Rands addresses some of the most pressing concerns of contemporary thinking about the twenty-first-century city. -- Blair Ruble, Woodrow Wilson Center Much that has been written on Japan's Korean population has focused on intra-class differences among Koreans or inter-ethnic differences between Koreans and Japanese. David Rand's well-researched inquiry offers a fresh perspective to this minority's history by contrasting its spatial development in Japan's most important commercial and political centers, Osaka and Tokyo. In its tracing of the formation of these zainichi centers from the early twentieth century to the postwar period, Function-Based Spatiality and the Development of Korean Communities in Japan underlines the diversity that this population contributes to 'homogeneous' Japanese society. This study should find an eager audience in Japan-Korea relations studies, but also urban development studies, as well. -- Mark Caprio, Rikkyo University Studying the different spatialities and functionalities of Korean immigrant communities in Japan's capital Tokyo and its second city Osaka, David Rands has produced an intriguing book that speaks to multiple academic disciplines and diverse readers. Rands adopts the framework of complex adaptive systems to better understand how individual choices intersect with urban form and therewith provides the reader with a new model to read the complex interactions of migrants and the cities that they live in. A close examination of the economic, social, and cultural structures that respectively characterized Tokyo and Osaka sets the stage for a detailed investigation of different opportunities and difficulties in each place. Studying intersection of Korean migrant communities with local-built environments, the book opens up fascinating new perspectives for diverse research fields including the study of port cities, research on capitals and secondary cities, or examination of Japanese cities in the global context. -- Carola Hein, Bryn Mawr College

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David Rands is director of the Asian studies minor and assistant professor in the Department of History and Philosophy at Austin Peay State University.

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