Another Zainichi woman to file a lawsuit, who is withholding her name to avoid harassment, disagrees with that assessment. A 47-year-old, third-generation Zainichi who lives with her Japanese husband and children in Osaka, she worked at Fuji Corp. without incident for a decade. But a few years ago, she said, her boss began sharing nationalistic propaganda and offensive comments about Zainichi, circulated in house on photocopied handouts. The material called them liars, expressed hatred and claimed they avoided paying taxes. “Some colleagues actually asked me if I ever pay taxes,” she said, deeply upset by all of it.

The woman went to Japan's Labor Standards Bureau and was told such statements were protected by free speech. So she got in touch with a lawyer and, before filing suit, wrote a letter asking the company to stop the offensive comments. In response, she was given the option to resign with compensation or to keep working without making a fuss. Instead, she initiated a lawsuit in August against the chairman and the company, suing them for about $275,000 for causing emotional distress.

After being reached for comment, Fuji Corp. posted a statement on its website calling her claim “groundless.”

According to Yasuko Morooka, a human rights lawyer and the author of the 2013 book “What Is Hate Speech?” these lawsuits will help anti-hate-speech legislation along by proving such discrimination does exist. “Almost all ethnic Koreans living in Japan have experienced discrimination,” she said in a recent interview, “so hate speech is nothing new.” With the recent increase in hate speech, a ban is necessary, she said, though it’s not a panacea.

“Education at school is essential to eradicating hate speech,” Morooka said, adding that erroneous beliefs about ethnic Koreans, like those promoted by Zaitokukai, arise from ignorance of Japan’s history with minorities. For much of the 20th century, anti-Korean sentiment was pervasive in Japan and affected government policy. “The Japanese government has been discriminating against ethnic Koreans living in Japan — the main target of hate speech — in its legal system since its colonial, expansionist era and postwar,” she said.

Yet there are signs that the government may be taking a more proactive approach. The national government launched an investigation into hate speech in July, and in May, Osaka became the first city in the country to propose a bill aimed at curbing hate speech. The same week, a group of national lawmakers submitted a bill that would outlaw racism and hate speech. Both proposals have stalled, yet in another sign of the momentum behind Japan’s anti-hate movement, more than 100 local governments across the country have formally condemned hate speech and made it harder to use public areas for hate rallies.

“We must stop hate speech now,” Morooka said, “so we don’t repeat history.”