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The study of Koreans in Japan, a minority group whose population has never exceeded 700,000 and now numbers between 400,000 and 500,000—or around 0.3 to 0.39 percent of Japan's total population today—may, at first glance, appear as a project of minor interest or significance. What has led this minority group to figure so prominently in English-language scholarly research during the past thirty years? Are zainichi Koreans disappearing? In response to these questions, I will consider the global-historical shifts in the study of Japanese society and culture, what it means to be zainichi in today's Japan and what kind of existential anxieties Koreans face. This article concludes with a proposal for a more central role in diaspora studies for the study of Koreans in Japan, thereby making Koreans in Japan more relevant in the context of a globalizing world and encouraging interaction with other areas of scholarly inquiry.