조선총독부 囑託 젠쇼 에이스케[善生永助]의 朝鮮人口 연구 및 특징

Abstract

Japan established the Government-General of Joseon in order to put Korea under its colonial rule, and carried out surveys and studies on the Korean society at large. Part-time employees who were appointed by the Government-General of Joseon (朝鮮總督府) played a leading role in the latter. Among others, Zensho Eiske (善生永助, 1885-1972), came to Korea in July 1923, wrote more survey reports and papers than anyone, until the end of 1935, during twelve years and a half he worked as part-time employee of the Government-General of Joseon. He is estimated to be one of the most typical “Japanese resident in Korea who studied Korea” (在朝日本人 韓國學硏究者). Of his survey reports, there are not a few that have meaning of the first survey or study on the Korean society and economy. To be specific, he covered a variety of subjects like market, commerce, population, industries, agriculture, community, and living condition, etc. This paper examines Zensho’s survey and study on the Korean population and analyzes their tendency and characteristics. Firstly, most of his works were either preparation data or outcome report for national census in 1925 and in 1930. It seems that they were basic researches which helped the Government-General of Joseon obtain general demographic information for understanding and ruling Korea. Secondly, his key subjects of Korean demographic studies were increase and decrease in population, change in structure of household, decease, marriage, divorce, and especially, relations between Japanese and Korean, such as naturalization and assimilation. Considering that civilizing and assimilating Korean people was a very important issue under Japanese imperialism, it appears that he paid attention to those themes for a secure and permanent Japanese colonial rule of Korea. Nevertheless, in spite of these limits, his series of works on the Korean population was the first research in the field of demographic history according to the modern academic methodology.