ISSN 1936-5349 (print) ISSN 1936-5357 (online) HARVARD JOHN M. OLIN CENTER FOR LAW, ECONOMICS, AND BUSINESS SOCIAL CAPITAL AND THE PROBLEM OF OPPORTUNISTIC LEADERSHIP: THE EXAMPLE OF KOREANS IN JAPAN J. Mark Ramseyer Discussion Paper No. 1043 09/2020 Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA 02138 This paper can be downloaded without charge from: The Harvard John M. Olin Discussion Paper Series: http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/olin_center The Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3703140 Discrimination; collective action; social capital; economic history JEL: J12, J15, K38, K42, N35 Address Correspondence to: J. Mark Ramseyer Harvard Law School
[email protected] Social Capital and the Problem of Opportunistic Leadership: The Example of Koreans in Japan By J. Mark Ramseyer Abstract: Through webs of cross-cutting ties, groups can build "social capital" -- the ability to use the resulting access to information and collective punishment to enforce on each other their norms of appropriate behavior. Yet not all minorities maintain such networks. And groups without them sometimes find themselves manipulated by opportunistic entrepreneurs who capture private benefits for themselves while generating massive hostility and (statistical) discrimination against the group as a whole. As one adage puts it, sometimes the worst enemy of a minority group is its own leadership. Consider the Korean residents of Japan. Koreans had begun to migrate to Japan in the 1910s. They were poor, single, male, young, uneducated, and did not intend to stay long. As one might expect given those characteristics, they maintained only very low levels of social capital, and generated substantial (statistical) discrimination against themselves.