Universal History Annotation << Back The First World War and the Formation of the Korean Community in Japan V.A. Gaykin During the first World War military orders that were placed in Japan’s warring allies triggered the rapid growth of military production and demand in the labour market, which contributed to the Korean labour migrants force. From 1915 to 1930, the population in Korea had increased by 30%. Korea’s industrial capacity grew less quickly, leading to a disparitetu between labour demand and supply. Not finding the mass of unskilled unemployed Koreans poured into Japan. Immigrants (to 1945, 2 million people) were in demand in those segments of the Japanese economy, which fully or partially ignored the aboriginal peoples. The result of the colonial exploitation of Korean migrant workers was to create in Japan between the two world wars the so-called built environment-economic development infrastructure: urban infrastructure (development of urban territories, municipal building), engineering infrastructure (sewerage, water, electricity), transport infrastructure (road, railway line). Between 1912 and 1937, the length of railways increased from 3000 km to 10000 km, number of railway stations from 477 to 4255. Keywords: Japan, Korean immigrants, day laborers, recession, public works, built environment. Contacts: E-mail: unara49@mail.ru Pp. 31-39.