Introduction

The popular understanding that women’s legal status declined during the colonial period has been heavily influenced by the discourse of Japanese colonial legacy that emerged with the 1990s movement to abolish the household head system (hojuje). Such perception is challenged by active participation of female litigants at the colonial courts and their frequent victory in lawsuits, which is the main subject of this book. Using rich source of the colonial court cases, this book provides a revisionist history about women’s legal rights over property and inheritance and women’s lawsuits against family members to claim these rights during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945). Through the process, the book illuminates the complex process through which the colonial policy of assimilation affected the everyday lives of Korean women and families during this period.