Burakumin
Encyclopedia
are a Japanese
social minority group
. The burakumin are one of the main minority groups in Japan
, along with the Ainu
of Hokkaidō
, the Ryukyuans
of Okinawa and Japanese residents of Korean
and Chinese
descent.
The burakumin are descendants of outcast communities of the feudal era, which mainly comprised those with occupations considered "tainted" with death or ritual impurity (such as executioner
s, undertakers, workers in slaughterhouses, butchers or tanner
s), and traditionally lived in their own secluded hamlets
and ghettos.
They were legally liberated in 1871 with the abolition of the feudal caste system. However, this did not put a stop to social discrimination
and their lower living standards, because Japanese family registration (Koseki)
was fixed to ancestral home address until recently, which allowed people to deduce their Burakumin membership. The burakumin were one of the several groups discriminated against within Japanese society
.
According to a survey conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 2003, 76% of Tokyo residents would not change their view of a close neighbor whom they discovered to be a burakumin; 4.9% of respondents, on the other hand, would actively avoid a burakumin neighbor. There is still a stigma
attached to being a resident of certain areas traditionally associated with the burakumin and some lingering discrimination
in matters such as marriage and employment
.
The long history of taboo
s and myths of the buraku left a continuous legacy of social desolation. Since the 1980s, more and more young buraku have started to organize and protest
against their social misfortunes. Movements with objectives ranging from "liberation" to encouraging integration have tried over the years to put a stop to this problem.
counted 4,533 dōwa chiku ( "assimilation districts" - Buraku communities officially designated for assimilation projects), mostly in western Japan, comprising 298,385 households with 892,751 residents.
The size of each community ranged from under five households to over 1,000 households, with 155 households being the average size. About three quarters of settlements are in rural areas. The distribution of discriminated communities varied greatly from region to region.
No discriminated communities were identified in the following prefectures
: Hokkaidō
, Aomori
, Iwate
, Miyagi
, Akita
, Yamagata
, Fukushima
, Tōkyō
, Toyama
, Ishikawa
and Okinawa
.
The Buraku Liberation League
(BLL), on the other hand, extrapolates Meiji-era figures to arrive at an estimate of nearly three million burakumin. A 1999 source indicates the presence of some two million burakumin, living in approximately 5,000 settlements.
In some areas, burakumin are in a majority; they account for over 70 percent of all residents of Yoshikawa
in Kochi Prefecture
. In Ōtō
in Fukuoka Prefecture
, they account for over 60 percent.
Japanese government statistics show the number of residents of assimilation districts who claim buraku ancestry, whereas BLL figures are estimates of the total number of descendants of all former and current buraku residents, including current residents with no buraku ancestry.
, commune or a hamlet
. People from regions of Japan where "discriminated communities" do not exist any more (e.g., anywhere north of Tokyo) may normally refer to any hamlet as a buraku, indicating that the word's usage is not necessarily pejorative.
A widely-used term for buraku settlements is dōwa chiku (同和地区 "assimilation districts"), an official term for districts designated for government and local authority assimilation projects.
The social issue surrounding "discriminated communities" is usually referred to as dōwa mondai ( "assimilation issues") or less commonly, buraku mondai ("hamlet issues").
In the feudal era, the outcast caste were called eta , a term now obviously considered derogatory. Eta towns were called etamura (穢多村).
Some burakumin refer to their own communities as "mura" ( "villages") and themselves as "mura-no-mono" ( "village people").
s, undertakers or leather
workers. Severe social stigma was attached to these occupations, influenced by Shinto
notions of kegare
( "defilement").
Other outcast groups included the hinin (非人—literally "non-human") (the definition of hinin, as well as their social status and typical occupations varied over time, but typically included ex-convicts and vagrants who worked as town guards, street cleaners or entertainers. )
According to James McClain's book Japan, a Modern History:
There are many theories as to how and in which era the outcast communities came into existence. For example, it is disputed whether society started ostracizing those who worked in tainted occupations or whether those who originally dropped out of society were forced to work in tainted occupations.
According to the latter view, displaced populations during the internal wars of the Muromachi era may have been relocated and forced into low-status occupations, for example, as public sanitation workers.
The social status and typical occupations of outcast communities have varied considerably according to region and over time. A burakumin neighborhood within metropolitan Tokyo
was the last to be served by streetcar
and is the site of butcher and leather shops to this day.
At the start of the Edo period
(1603–1867), the caste system was officially established as a means of designating social hierarchy, and eta were placed at the lowest level, outside of the four main divisions of society
. Like the rest of the population, they were bound by sumptuary laws based on the inheritance of their social class
. The eta lived in segregated
settlements, and were generally avoided by the rest of Japanese society.
Segregation and discrimination were encouraged by the authorities as a means of government control. For example, they typically had their own temples and were not allowed to visit other religious sites. Japanese Buddhists were given posthumous religious names ( kaimyo) when they were deceased; eta were often given names that included the kanji characters
for beast, humble, ignoble, servant, and other derogatory expressions.http://blhrri.org/blhrri_e/blhrri/Q&A.htm
When dealing with members of other castes, they were expected to display signs of subservience, such as the removal of headwear. In an 1859 court case described by author Shimazaki Toson
, a magistrate declared that "An eta is worth 1/7 of an ordinary person."
Historically, eta were not liable for taxation in feudal times, including the Tokugawa period
, because the taxation system was based on rice yields, which they were not permitted to possess. Some outcasts were also called kawaramono because they lived along river banks that could not be turned into rice fields.
Since the taboo status of the work they performed afforded them an effective monopoly in their trades, some succeeded economically and even occasionally obtained samurai
status through marrying or the outright purchase of troubled houses. Some historians point out that such exclusive rights originated in ancient times, granted by shrines, temples, kuge
, or the imperial court, which held authority before the Shogunate system was established.
The feudal caste system in Japan ended in 1869 with the Meiji restoration
. In 1871, the newly formed Meiji government issued a decree called Kaihōrei (解放令 Emancipation Edict) giving outcasts equal legal status. (This terminology is not the original, but a later revision. Originally, it was labeled Senmin Haishirei (賤民廃止令 Edict Abolishing Ignoble Classes.) However, the elimination of their economic monopolies over certain occupations actually led to a decline in their general living standards, while social discrimination simply continued. For example, the ban on consumption of meat from livestock was lifted in 1871 in order to "westernise" the country, and many former eta moved on to work in abattoirs
and as butcher
s.
However, slow-changing social attitudes, especially in the countryside, meant that abattoirs and workers were met with hostility from local residents. Continued ostracism as well as the decline in living standards led to former eta communities turning into slum areas.
There were many terms used to indicate former outcasts, their communities or settlements at the time. Official documents at the time referred to them as kyu-eta ( "former eta"), while the newly liberated outcasts called themselves shin-heimin ("new citizens"), among other things.
The term tokushu buraku (特殊部落 "special hamlets", now considered inappropriate) started being used by officials in 1900s, leading to the meaning of the word buraku ("hamlet") coming to imply former eta villages in certain parts of Japan.
Movements to resolve the problem in the early 20th century were divided into two camps: the movement which encouraged improvements in living standards of buraku communities and integration with the mainstream Japanese society, and the movement which concentrated on confronting and criticising alleged perpetrators of discrimination.
In 1969, the government passed the Special Measures Law for Assimilation Projects to provide funding to these communities. Communities deemed to be in need of funding were designated for various Assimilation Projects ( dōwa taisaku jigyō), such as construction of new housing and community facilities such as health centers, libraries and swimming pools. The projects were terminated in 2002 with a total funding of an estimated 12 trillion yen over 33 years, with the living standards issue effectively resolved.
region, people in general are often not even aware of the issue, and if they are, usually only as part of feudal history. Due to the taboo nature of the topic it is rarely covered by the media, and people from eastern Japan, for example, are often shocked when they learn that it is a continuing issue.
The prejudice most often manifests itself in the form of marriage discrimination, and less often, in employment. Traditionalist families have been known to check on the backgrounds of potential in-laws to identify people of buraku background. These checks are now illegal, and marriage discrimination is diminishing; Nadamoto Masahisa of the Buraku History Institute estimates that between 60 and 80% of burakumin marry a non-burakumin, whereas for people in their sixties, the rate was 10% http://www.nancho.net/kyoto/nadamoto.html.
Cases of continuing social discrimination are known to occur mainly in western Japan, particularly in the Osaka
, Kyōto
, Hyōgo
and Hiroshima
regions, where many people, especially the older generation, stereotype buraku residents (whatever their ancestry) and associate them with squalor, unemployment and criminality. http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=485.
and Alec Dubro in Yakuza: The Explosive Account of Japan's Criminal Underworld (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1986), burakumin account for about 70 percent of the members of Yamaguchi-gumi
, the biggest yakuza
syndicate in Japan.
Mitsuhiro Suganuma, the ex-member of Public Security Intelligence Agency, testified that burakumin account for about 60 percent of the members of the entire yakuza.
The book contained a nationwide list of all the names and locations of buraku settlements (as well as the primary means of employment of their inhabitants), which could be compared against people's addresses to determine if they were buraku residents.
The preface contained the following message: "At this time, we have decided to go against public opinion and create this book [for] personnel managers grappling with employment issues, and families pained by problems with their children's marriages."
More than 200 large Japanese firms, including (according to the Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Centre of Osaka) Toyota, Nissan, Honda
and Daihatsu, along with thousands of individuals purchased copies of the book.
In 1985, partially in response to the popularity of this book, and an increase in mimoto chōsa the Osaka prefectural government introduced "An Ordinance to Regulate Personal Background Investigation Conducive to Buraku Discrimination".
Although the production and sale of the book has been banned, numerous copies of it are still in existence, and in 1997, an Osaka private investigation firm was the first to be charged with violation of the 1985 statute for using the text. It is possible that other investigators still use the book.
The declaration portrayed the burakumin ancestors as "manly martyrs of industry." To submit meekly to oppression would be to insult and profane these ancestors. Despite internal divisions among anarchist, Bolshevik, and social democratic factions, and despite the Japanese government's establishment of an alternate organization Yūma movement, designed to undercut the influence of the Suiheisha, the Levelers Association remained active until the late 1930s.
After World War II
, the National Committee for Burakumin Liberation was founded, changing its name to the Buraku Liberation League
(Buraku Kaihō Dōmei) in the 1950s. The league, with the support of the socialist and communist parties, pressured the government into making important concessions in the late 1960s and 1970s.
One concession was the passing of the Special Measures Law for Assimilation Projects, which provided financial aid for the discriminated communities. Also, in 1976, legislation was put in place which banned third parties from looking up another person's family registry (koseki
).
This traditional system of registry, kept for all Japanese by the Ministry of Justice
since the 19th century, would reveal an individual's buraku ancestry if consulted. Under the new legislation, these records could now be consulted only in legal cases, making it more difficult to identify or discriminate against members of the group.
(狭山事件), which involved the murder conviction of a member of the discriminated communities based on circumstantial evidence (which is generally given little weight vs. physical evidence in Japanese courts), focused public attention on the problems of the group.
In the 1980s some educators and local governments, particularly in areas with relatively large hisabetsu buraku populations, began special education programs which they hoped would encourage greater educational and economic success for young members of the group and decrease the discrimination they faced.
Branches of burakumin rights groups exist today in all parts of Japan except for Hokkaidō
and Okinawa.
"Human Rights Promotion Centers" (人権啓発センター) have been set up across the country by prefectural governments and local authorities; these, in addition to promoting burakumin rights, campaign on behalf of a wide range of groups such as women, the disabled, ethnic minorities, foreign residents and released prisoners.
(The term "human rights" (人権 jinken) usually has a different meaning in Japan than it does in the English speaking world. Where in English the term is most often used in reference to protecting people against violations by, for example, the criminal justice system or an oppressive regime, in Japan it is most often used in reference to equality and discrimination issues.)
is considered one of the most militant among burakumin's rights groups. The BLL is known for its fierce "denunciation and explanation sessions", where alleged perpetrators of discriminatory actions or speech are summoned for a public hearing before a panel of activists.
Early sessions were marked by occasions of violence and kidnapping, and several BLL activists have been arrested for such acts. The legality of these sessions is still disputed, but to this date the authorities have mostly turned a blind eye to them except in the more extreme cases.
In 1990, Karel van Wolferen
's criticism of the BLL in his much-acclaimed book The Enigma of Japanese Power
prompted the BLL to demand the publisher halt publication of the Japanese translation of the book. Van Wolferen condemned this as an international scandal.
The other major buraku activist group is the National Buraku Liberation Alliance (全国部落解放運動連合会 Zenkoku Buraku Kaihō Undō Rengōkai, or Zenkairen), affiliated to the Japanese Communist Party
(JCP). It was formed in 1979 by BLL activists who were either purged from the organization or abandoned it in the late 1960s due to, among other things, their opposition to the decision that subsidies to the burakumin should be limited to the BLL members only. Not all burakumin were BLL members and not all residents of the areas targeted for subsidies were historically descendent from the out-caste.
The Zenkairen often came head-to-head with the BLL, accusing them of chauvinism. The bickering between the two organisations boiled over in 1974 when a clash between teachers belonging to a JCP-affiliated union and BLL activists at a high school in Yoka, rural Hyōgo Prefecture
, put 29 in hospital.
In 1988, the BLL formed the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR). The BLL sought for the IMADR to be recognized as a United Nations
Non-Government Organization
, but in 1991, the Zenkairen informed the United Nations
about the alleged human rights violations committed by the BLL in the course of their 'denunciation sessions' held with accused 'discriminators'.
However, when suspected cases of discrimination were uncovered, the Zenkairen often conducted denunciation sessions as fierce as those of the BLL. Nonetheless, the IMADR was designated a UN human rights NGO in March 1993.
On 3 March 2004, the Zenkairen announced that "the buraku issue has basically been resolved" and formally disbanded. On 4 March 2004 they launched a new organisation called "National Confederation of Human Rights Movements in The Community" (全国地域人権運動総連合 'Zenkoku Chiiki Jinken Undō Sōrengō') or Zenkoku Jinken Ren.
Honganji Sect is a particularly bitter and ironic one. The original philosophy of the sect, as propounded by its founder Shinran
, was anti-discriminatory, rejecting the need to keep the traditional Buddhist precepts or to carry out the purification rituals of indigenous Japanese religion. As such, butchers, fishermen and so on, who had all been discriminated against by the older sects, were welcomed into the Jodo Shinshu.
The side-effect of this liberating philosophy, however, was that it led to a series of anti-feudal rebellions, known as the Ikkō-ikki
revolts, which seriously threatened the religious and political status-quo. Accordingly the political powers engineered a situation whereby the Jōdo Shinshū
split into two competing branches, the Shinshu Otani-ha and the Honganji-ha. This had the consequence that the sects moved increasingly away from their anti-feudal position towards a feudal one.
Later the state also forced all people to belong to a specific Buddhist school according to the formula:
In consequence the Honganji, which under Rennyo
's leadership had defiantly accepted the derogatory label of 'the dirty sect' (see Rennyo's letters known as the Ofumi / Gobunsho) now began to discriminate against its own burakumin members as it jostled for political and social status.
In 1922, when the National Levelers' Association (Zenkoku-suiheisha) was founded in Kyoto, Mankichi Saiko, a founder of the movement and Jodo Shinshu priest, said:
Finally in 1969 the Honganji began to recognise its mistreatment of burakumin and appears to be beginning to address the problem.http://www.shindharmanet.com/writings/burakumin.htm.
The fact of religious discrimination against the burakumin was commonly denied until the late twentieth century. For example, in 1979 the Director-General of the Sōtō
Sect of Buddhism made a speech at the "3rd World Conference on Religion and Peace" claiming that there was no longer any discrimination against burakumin in Japan.http://blhrri.org/blhrri_e/blhrri/Q&A.htm.
title 天国と地獄 Tengoku to jigoku, literally "Heaven and Hell") http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057565/, a movie adapted in 1963 from Ed McBain
's King's Ransom, Akira Kurosawa
made a political statement by having the main character work as a shoe industry executive who rose from humble origins as a simple leather worker, clearly implying (to Japanese audiences) his burakumin status.
The plight of the burakumin has also been presented in Hashi no nai kawa http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104395/ (橋のない川 "The River With No Bridge") a novel by Sue Sumii (住井 すゑ), which received several film adaptations, in 1969, 1970 and 1992. The title refers to the fact that areas in which burakumin lived were often separated by a river, but bridges to cross were rarely constructed.
Author Lian Hearn depicts a fictional feudal country highly similar to that of Japan's own history in the three-book series Tales of the Otori
(2003–2004). The series depicts a caste system wherein "untouchables" live outside of mainstream society. The protagonist develops a friendship with one such outcast, a tanner who lives and works with other tanners in riverside settlements.
In Laura Joh Rowland
's 'Sano Ichiro' series, burakumin (naturally still referred to by the Feudal name 'eta') appear regularly. Sometimes they are criminals, and other times merely unseen witnesses. In The Concubine's Tattoo, Sano speaks with the chief of a small burakumin community named Danzaemon and notes that the man has a regal bearing about him despite his status. He even thinks to himself, "But for the misfortune of his birth, what a fine daimyo he might have made! It was a blasphemous thought, but Sano could more easily imagine Danzaemon commanding an army than Tokugawa Tsunayoshi."
In the book Rising Sun
, Michael Crichton
depicts a character (Theresa Asakuma) who is a burakumin descendant. Along the storyline, bits and pieces of history of this people are described to the reader.
In Cloud of Sparrows, by the Japanese-American writer, Takashi Matsuoka
, and later in its sequel The Autumn Bridge, burakumin are often mentioned by the old name 'eta'. They are described as filthy beggars, more animal than human, and their life has no apparent value to the samurai
, a fact that baffles the Christian missionaries visiting Japan in the novels.
In the award winning 2008 Japanese movie Okuribito (Departures), the main character Daigo becomes a professional coffiner, a line of work long reviled in Japanese culture for its association with the dead. It isn't explicitly mentioned, but a Japanese audience would recognise it as a job for burakumin. Despite Daigo having no mentioned ancestral background, the film portrays a sense of strong lingering discrimination to work associated with burakumin. As such he tries to hide his new profession from everyone, including his wife , who actually leaves him when she learns the truth. Rather than quit, he continues his work and achieves great fulfillment in seeing the gratitude of families after he performs his ceremony. Many characters in the movie, including his wife, undergo a radical change of heart from vilification to awe and respect after seeing Daigo work.
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
social minority group
Minority group
A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
. The burakumin are one of the main minority groups in Japan
Demographics of Japan
The demographic features of the population of Japan include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
, along with the Ainu
Ainu people
The , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...
of Hokkaidō
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
, the Ryukyuans
Ryukyuans
The are the indigenous peoples of the Ryukyu Islands between the islands of Kyūshū and Taiwan. The generally recognized subgroups of Ryukyuans are Amamians, Okinawans, Miyakoans, Yaeyamans, and Yonagunians. Geographically, they live in either Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture...
of Okinawa and Japanese residents of Korean
Zainichi Korean
Koreans in Japan are the ethnic Korean residents of Japan. They currently constitute the second largest ethnic minority group in Japan. The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans, also often known as Zainichi for short, who are the permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan...
and Chinese
Chinese people in Japan
Chinese people in Japan consist of migrants from China to Japan and their descendants. They have a history going back for centuries.- Population and distribution :...
descent.
The burakumin are descendants of outcast communities of the feudal era, which mainly comprised those with occupations considered "tainted" with death or ritual impurity (such as executioner
Executioner
A judicial executioner is a person who carries out a death sentence ordered by the state or other legal authority, which was known in feudal terminology as high justice.-Scope and job:...
s, undertakers, workers in slaughterhouses, butchers or tanner
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
s), and traditionally lived in their own secluded hamlets
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
and ghettos.
They were legally liberated in 1871 with the abolition of the feudal caste system. However, this did not put a stop to social discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
and their lower living standards, because Japanese family registration (Koseki)
Koseki
A is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Japanese citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese...
was fixed to ancestral home address until recently, which allowed people to deduce their Burakumin membership. The burakumin were one of the several groups discriminated against within Japanese society
Ethnic issues in Japan
- Demographic :About 1.6% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign nationals. Of these, according to 2008 data from the Japanese government, the principal groups are as follows....
.
According to a survey conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 2003, 76% of Tokyo residents would not change their view of a close neighbor whom they discovered to be a burakumin; 4.9% of respondents, on the other hand, would actively avoid a burakumin neighbor. There is still a stigma
Social stigma
Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...
attached to being a resident of certain areas traditionally associated with the burakumin and some lingering discrimination
Ethnic issues in Japan
- Demographic :About 1.6% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign nationals. Of these, according to 2008 data from the Japanese government, the principal groups are as follows....
in matters such as marriage and employment
Economy of Japan
The economy of Japan, a free market economy, is the third largest in the world after the United States and the People's Republic of China, and ahead of Germany at 4th...
.
The long history of taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
s and myths of the buraku left a continuous legacy of social desolation. Since the 1980s, more and more young buraku have started to organize and protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
against their social misfortunes. Movements with objectives ranging from "liberation" to encouraging integration have tried over the years to put a stop to this problem.
Current numbers
The number of Burakumin asserted to be living in modern Japan varies from source to source. A 1993 investigative report by the Japanese GovernmentPolitics of Japan
The politics of Japan is conducted in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic monarchy, where Prime Minister of Japan is the head of government. Japanese politics uses a multi-party system. Executive power exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the Diet, with...
counted 4,533 dōwa chiku ( "assimilation districts" - Buraku communities officially designated for assimilation projects), mostly in western Japan, comprising 298,385 households with 892,751 residents.
The size of each community ranged from under five households to over 1,000 households, with 155 households being the average size. About three quarters of settlements are in rural areas. The distribution of discriminated communities varied greatly from region to region.
No discriminated communities were identified in the following prefectures
Prefectures of Japan
The prefectures of Japan are the country's 47 subnational jurisdictions: one "metropolis" , Tokyo; one "circuit" , Hokkaidō; two urban prefectures , Osaka and Kyoto; and 43 other prefectures . In Japanese, they are commonly referred to as...
: Hokkaidō
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
, Aomori
Aomori Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku Region. The capital is the city of Aomori.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, the area of Aomori prefecture was known as Mutsu Province....
, Iwate
Iwate Prefecture
is the second largest prefecture of Japan after Hokkaido. It is located in the Tōhoku region of Honshū island and contains the island's easternmost point. The capital is Morioka. Iwate has the lowest population density of any prefecture outside Hokkaido...
, Miyagi
Miyagi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku Region on Honshu island. The capital is Sendai.- History :Miyagi Prefecture was formerly part of the province of Mutsu. Mutsu Province, on northern Honshu, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Emishi, and became the...
, Akita
Akita Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku Region of northern Honshu, the main island of Japan. The capital is the city of Akita.- History :The area of Akita has been created from the ancient provinces of Dewa and Mutsu....
, Yamagata
Yamagata Prefecture
-Fruit:Yamagata Prefecture is the largest producer of cherries and pears in Japan. A large quantity of other kinds of fruits such as grapes, apples, peaches, melons, persimmons and watermelons are also produced.- Demographics :...
, Fukushima
Fukushima Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region on the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Fukushima.-History:Until the Meiji Restoration, the area of Fukushima prefecture was known as Mutsu Province....
, Tōkyō
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Toyama
Toyama Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Hokuriku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Toyama.Toyama is the leading industrial prefecture on the Japan Sea coast, and has the industrial advantage of cheap electricity due to abundant water resources....
, Ishikawa
Ishikawa Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshū island. The capital is Kanazawa.- History :Ishikawa was formed from the merger of Kaga Province and the smaller Noto Province.- Geography :Ishikawa is on the Sea of Japan coast...
and Okinawa
Okinawa Prefecture
is one of Japan's southern prefectures. It consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū to Taiwan. Okinawa's capital, Naha, is located in the southern part of Okinawa Island...
.
The Buraku Liberation League
Buraku Liberation League
is one of the burakumin's rights groups in Japan.-Pre-WW2 period:The origin of the Buraku Liberation League is the , founded in 1922. However, in 1942, some of the leading activists, including Asada Zennosuke , were recruited into the military...
(BLL), on the other hand, extrapolates Meiji-era figures to arrive at an estimate of nearly three million burakumin. A 1999 source indicates the presence of some two million burakumin, living in approximately 5,000 settlements.
In some areas, burakumin are in a majority; they account for over 70 percent of all residents of Yoshikawa
Yoshikawa, Kochi
Yoshikawa was a village located in the former Kami District, Kōchi, Japan.On March 1, 2006 Yoshikawa was merged with the towns of Akaoka, Kagami, Noichi and Yasu, all from Kami District, to form the new city of Kōnan and no longer exists as an independent municipality.As of 2003, the village had...
in Kochi Prefecture
Kochi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the south coast of Shikoku. The capital is the city of Kōchi.- History :Prior to the Meiji Restoration, Kōchi was known as Tosa Province and was controlled by the Chosokabe clan in the Sengoku period and the Yamauchi family during the Edo period.- Geography...
. In Ōtō
Oto, Fukuoka
is a town located in Tagawa District, Fukuoka, Japan.As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 5,881 and a density of 412.99 persons per km². The total area is 14.24 km².-External links:*...
in Fukuoka Prefecture
Fukuoka Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on Kyūshū Island. The capital is the city of Fukuoka.- History :Fukuoka Prefecture includes the former provinces of Chikugo, Chikuzen, and Buzen....
, they account for over 60 percent.
Japanese government statistics show the number of residents of assimilation districts who claim buraku ancestry, whereas BLL figures are estimates of the total number of descendants of all former and current buraku residents, including current residents with no buraku ancestry.
Notable burakumin
- Jiichirō MatsumotoJiichiro Matsumotowas a famous Japanese politician and businessman with origins from Fukuoka Prefecture. He was undoubtedly leader of burakumin liberation movement from the early beginning of it and was called "buraku liberation father" in Buraku Liberation League.-Career:...
, politician and businessman who was called the "buraku liberation father" - Kenji NakagamiKenji NakagamiKenji Nakagami was a noted Japanese writer, critic, and poet of buraku ancestry. Nakagami died from kidney cancer in 1992 at the age of 46.- Life :...
, writer, critic, and poet - Hiromu NonakaHiromu Nonakais a Japanese LDP politician and former member of the House of Representatives. He is currently a lecturer at Heian Jogakuin University.He has held the following posts:...
, chief cabinet secretary (1998–1999)
Terminology
The term buraku literally refers to a small, generally ruralRural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
, commune or a hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
. People from regions of Japan where "discriminated communities" do not exist any more (e.g., anywhere north of Tokyo) may normally refer to any hamlet as a buraku, indicating that the word's usage is not necessarily pejorative.
| Romaji | Kanji | Meaning | Annotation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hisabetsu-buraku | discriminated community/hamlet | is a commonly used, politically correct term, with people from them called hisabetsu-burakumin ( "discriminated community (hamlet) people") or hisabetsu buraku shusshin-sha ( "person from a discriminated community / hamlet"). |
|
| Burakumin | hamlet people | is either hamlet people per se or an abbreviation of people from discriminated community/hamlet. Very old people tend to use the word in the former meaning. Its use in the Japanese language is sometimes frowned upon, although it is by far the most commonly used term in English. | |
| Mikaihō-buraku | unliberated communities | is a term sometimes used by human rights pressure groups and the one which has a degree of political ring to it. | |
| Tokushu buraku | special hamlets | was used in the early 20th Century but is now considered inappropriate. |
A widely-used term for buraku settlements is dōwa chiku (同和地区 "assimilation districts"), an official term for districts designated for government and local authority assimilation projects.
The social issue surrounding "discriminated communities" is usually referred to as dōwa mondai ( "assimilation issues") or less commonly, buraku mondai ("hamlet issues").
In the feudal era, the outcast caste were called eta , a term now obviously considered derogatory. Eta towns were called etamura (穢多村).
Some burakumin refer to their own communities as "mura" ( "villages") and themselves as "mura-no-mono" ( "village people").
Historical origins
The word burakumin is used to describe descendants of outcast communities in feudal Japan, most of them being eta (穢多 "filthy mass") who worked in occupations relating to death, such as executionerExecutioner
A judicial executioner is a person who carries out a death sentence ordered by the state or other legal authority, which was known in feudal terminology as high justice.-Scope and job:...
s, undertakers or leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
workers. Severe social stigma was attached to these occupations, influenced by Shinto
Shinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
notions of kegare
Kegare
is the Japanese term for a state of pollution and defilement, important particularly in Shinto as a religious term. Typical causes of kegare are the contact with any form of death, childbirth , disease and menstruation. In Shinto kegare is a form of tsumi , which needs to be somehow remedied by the...
( "defilement").
Other outcast groups included the hinin (非人—literally "non-human") (the definition of hinin, as well as their social status and typical occupations varied over time, but typically included ex-convicts and vagrants who worked as town guards, street cleaners or entertainers. )
According to James McClain's book Japan, a Modern History:
Fundamental Shinto beliefs equated goodness and godliness with purity and cleanliness, and they further held that impurities could cling to things and persons, making them evil or sinful. But a person could become seriously contaminated by habitually killing animals or committing some hideous misdeed that ripped at the fabric of the community, such as engaging in incest or bestiality. Such persons, custom decreed, had to be cast out from the rest of society, condemned to wander from place to place, surviving as best they could by begging or by earning a few coins as itinerant singers, dancers, mimes, and acrobats.
There are many theories as to how and in which era the outcast communities came into existence. For example, it is disputed whether society started ostracizing those who worked in tainted occupations or whether those who originally dropped out of society were forced to work in tainted occupations.
According to the latter view, displaced populations during the internal wars of the Muromachi era may have been relocated and forced into low-status occupations, for example, as public sanitation workers.
The social status and typical occupations of outcast communities have varied considerably according to region and over time. A burakumin neighborhood within metropolitan Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
was the last to be served by streetcar
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
and is the site of butcher and leather shops to this day.
At the start of the Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
(1603–1867), the caste system was officially established as a means of designating social hierarchy, and eta were placed at the lowest level, outside of the four main divisions of society
Four divisions of society
The four divisions of society refers to the model of society in ancient China and was a meritocratic social class system in China, and other subsequently influenced Confucian societies. The four castes—gentry, farmers, artisans and merchants—are combined to form the term Shìnónggōngshāng...
. Like the rest of the population, they were bound by sumptuary laws based on the inheritance of their social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
. The eta lived in segregated
Geographical segregation
Geographical segregation exists whenever the proportions of population rates of two or more populations are not homogenous throughout a defined space...
settlements, and were generally avoided by the rest of Japanese society.
Segregation and discrimination were encouraged by the authorities as a means of government control. For example, they typically had their own temples and were not allowed to visit other religious sites. Japanese Buddhists were given posthumous religious names ( kaimyo) when they were deceased; eta were often given names that included the kanji characters
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
for beast, humble, ignoble, servant, and other derogatory expressions.http://blhrri.org/blhrri_e/blhrri/Q&A.htm
When dealing with members of other castes, they were expected to display signs of subservience, such as the removal of headwear. In an 1859 court case described by author Shimazaki Toson
Shimazaki Toson
is the pen-name of Shimazaki Haruki, a Japanese author, active in the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods of Japan. He began his career as a romantic poet, but went on to establish himself as a major proponent of naturalism in Japanese fiction.-Early life:...
, a magistrate declared that "An eta is worth 1/7 of an ordinary person."
Historically, eta were not liable for taxation in feudal times, including the Tokugawa period
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
, because the taxation system was based on rice yields, which they were not permitted to possess. Some outcasts were also called kawaramono because they lived along river banks that could not be turned into rice fields.
Since the taboo status of the work they performed afforded them an effective monopoly in their trades, some succeeded economically and even occasionally obtained samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
status through marrying or the outright purchase of troubled houses. Some historians point out that such exclusive rights originated in ancient times, granted by shrines, temples, kuge
Kuge
The was a Japanese aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto until the rise of the Shogunate in the 12th century at which point it was eclipsed by the daimyo...
, or the imperial court, which held authority before the Shogunate system was established.
End of feudal era
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
. In 1871, the newly formed Meiji government issued a decree called Kaihōrei (解放令 Emancipation Edict) giving outcasts equal legal status. (This terminology is not the original, but a later revision. Originally, it was labeled Senmin Haishirei (賤民廃止令 Edict Abolishing Ignoble Classes.) However, the elimination of their economic monopolies over certain occupations actually led to a decline in their general living standards, while social discrimination simply continued. For example, the ban on consumption of meat from livestock was lifted in 1871 in order to "westernise" the country, and many former eta moved on to work in abattoirs
Slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
and as butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
s.
However, slow-changing social attitudes, especially in the countryside, meant that abattoirs and workers were met with hostility from local residents. Continued ostracism as well as the decline in living standards led to former eta communities turning into slum areas.
There were many terms used to indicate former outcasts, their communities or settlements at the time. Official documents at the time referred to them as kyu-eta ( "former eta"), while the newly liberated outcasts called themselves shin-heimin ("new citizens"), among other things.
The term tokushu buraku (特殊部落 "special hamlets", now considered inappropriate) started being used by officials in 1900s, leading to the meaning of the word buraku ("hamlet") coming to imply former eta villages in certain parts of Japan.
Movements to resolve the problem in the early 20th century were divided into two camps: the movement which encouraged improvements in living standards of buraku communities and integration with the mainstream Japanese society, and the movement which concentrated on confronting and criticising alleged perpetrators of discrimination.
Discrimination in access to services
While in many parts of the country buraku settlements, built on the site of former eta villages, ceased to exist by the 1960s because of either urban development or integration into mainstream society, in other regions many of their residents continued to suffer from slum-like housing and infrastructure, lower economic status, illiteracy, and lower general educational standards.In 1969, the government passed the Special Measures Law for Assimilation Projects to provide funding to these communities. Communities deemed to be in need of funding were designated for various Assimilation Projects ( dōwa taisaku jigyō), such as construction of new housing and community facilities such as health centers, libraries and swimming pools. The projects were terminated in 2002 with a total funding of an estimated 12 trillion yen over 33 years, with the living standards issue effectively resolved.
Social discrimination
However, cases of social discrimination against residents of buraku areas is still an issue in certain regions. Outside of the KansaiKansai
The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo, and Shiga. Depending on who makes the distinction, Fukui, Tokushima and even Tottori Prefecture are also included...
region, people in general are often not even aware of the issue, and if they are, usually only as part of feudal history. Due to the taboo nature of the topic it is rarely covered by the media, and people from eastern Japan, for example, are often shocked when they learn that it is a continuing issue.
The prejudice most often manifests itself in the form of marriage discrimination, and less often, in employment. Traditionalist families have been known to check on the backgrounds of potential in-laws to identify people of buraku background. These checks are now illegal, and marriage discrimination is diminishing; Nadamoto Masahisa of the Buraku History Institute estimates that between 60 and 80% of burakumin marry a non-burakumin, whereas for people in their sixties, the rate was 10% http://www.nancho.net/kyoto/nadamoto.html.
Cases of continuing social discrimination are known to occur mainly in western Japan, particularly in the Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
, Kyōto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
, Hyōgo
Hyogo Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is Kobe.The prefecture's name was previously alternately spelled as Hiogo.- History :...
and Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
regions, where many people, especially the older generation, stereotype buraku residents (whatever their ancestry) and associate them with squalor, unemployment and criminality. http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=485.
Yakuza membership
According to David E. KaplanDavid Kaplan (author)
David E. Kaplan is an investigative reporter and director of the Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Prior, he was with the American newsweekly U.S. News & World Report.-Works:...
and Alec Dubro in Yakuza: The Explosive Account of Japan's Criminal Underworld (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1986), burakumin account for about 70 percent of the members of Yamaguchi-gumi
Yamaguchi-gumi
is Japan's largest and most infamous yakuza organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for dockworkers in Kobe pre-WWII....
, the biggest yakuza
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
syndicate in Japan.
Mitsuhiro Suganuma, the ex-member of Public Security Intelligence Agency, testified that burakumin account for about 60 percent of the members of the entire yakuza.
"Tokushu Buraku Chimei Sōkan" incident
In November 1975, the Osaka branch of the Buraku Liberation League was tipped off about the existence of a book called "A Comprehensive List of Buraku Area Names" ( Tokushu Buraku Chimei Sōkan). Investigations revealed that copies of the hand-written 330-page book were being secretly sold by an Osaka-based firm to numerous firms and individuals throughout Japan by a mail order service called Cablenet, at between ¥5,000 and ¥50,000 per copy.The book contained a nationwide list of all the names and locations of buraku settlements (as well as the primary means of employment of their inhabitants), which could be compared against people's addresses to determine if they were buraku residents.
The preface contained the following message: "At this time, we have decided to go against public opinion and create this book [for] personnel managers grappling with employment issues, and families pained by problems with their children's marriages."
More than 200 large Japanese firms, including (according to the Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Centre of Osaka) Toyota, Nissan, Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
and Daihatsu, along with thousands of individuals purchased copies of the book.
In 1985, partially in response to the popularity of this book, and an increase in mimoto chōsa the Osaka prefectural government introduced "An Ordinance to Regulate Personal Background Investigation Conducive to Buraku Discrimination".
Although the production and sale of the book has been banned, numerous copies of it are still in existence, and in 1997, an Osaka private investigation firm was the first to be charged with violation of the 1985 statute for using the text. It is possible that other investigators still use the book.
Burakumin rights movement
As early as 1922, leaders of the Hisabetsu Buraku organized a movement, the "Levelers Association of Japan" (Suiheisha), to advance their rights. The Declaration of the Suiheisha encouraged the burakumin to unite in resistance to discrimination, and sought to frame a positive identity for the victims of discrimination, insisting that the time had come to be "proud of being eta.The declaration portrayed the burakumin ancestors as "manly martyrs of industry." To submit meekly to oppression would be to insult and profane these ancestors. Despite internal divisions among anarchist, Bolshevik, and social democratic factions, and despite the Japanese government's establishment of an alternate organization Yūma movement, designed to undercut the influence of the Suiheisha, the Levelers Association remained active until the late 1930s.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the National Committee for Burakumin Liberation was founded, changing its name to the Buraku Liberation League
Buraku Liberation League
is one of the burakumin's rights groups in Japan.-Pre-WW2 period:The origin of the Buraku Liberation League is the , founded in 1922. However, in 1942, some of the leading activists, including Asada Zennosuke , were recruited into the military...
(Buraku Kaihō Dōmei) in the 1950s. The league, with the support of the socialist and communist parties, pressured the government into making important concessions in the late 1960s and 1970s.
One concession was the passing of the Special Measures Law for Assimilation Projects, which provided financial aid for the discriminated communities. Also, in 1976, legislation was put in place which banned third parties from looking up another person's family registry (koseki
Koseki
A is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Japanese citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese...
).
This traditional system of registry, kept for all Japanese by the Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Justice (Japan)
The is one of Ministries of the Japanese government.-Meiji Constitution:The Ministry of Justice was established under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan in 1871 as the .-Constitution of Japan:...
since the 19th century, would reveal an individual's buraku ancestry if consulted. Under the new legislation, these records could now be consulted only in legal cases, making it more difficult to identify or discriminate against members of the group.
1990s
Even into the early 1990s, however, discussion of the 'liberation' of these discriminated communities, or even their existence, was taboo in public discussion. In the 1960s the Sayama IncidentSayama Incident
The is a murder case named after Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, where it took place. The incident, in which a man was imprisoned for 31 years, highlighted official discrimination against Japan's burakumin.-The murder:...
(狭山事件), which involved the murder conviction of a member of the discriminated communities based on circumstantial evidence (which is generally given little weight vs. physical evidence in Japanese courts), focused public attention on the problems of the group.
In the 1980s some educators and local governments, particularly in areas with relatively large hisabetsu buraku populations, began special education programs which they hoped would encourage greater educational and economic success for young members of the group and decrease the discrimination they faced.
Branches of burakumin rights groups exist today in all parts of Japan except for Hokkaidō
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
and Okinawa.
"Human Rights Promotion Centers" (人権啓発センター) have been set up across the country by prefectural governments and local authorities; these, in addition to promoting burakumin rights, campaign on behalf of a wide range of groups such as women, the disabled, ethnic minorities, foreign residents and released prisoners.
(The term "human rights" (人権 jinken) usually has a different meaning in Japan than it does in the English speaking world. Where in English the term is most often used in reference to protecting people against violations by, for example, the criminal justice system or an oppressive regime, in Japan it is most often used in reference to equality and discrimination issues.)
Buraku Liberation League and the Zenkairen
The Buraku Liberation LeagueBuraku Liberation League
is one of the burakumin's rights groups in Japan.-Pre-WW2 period:The origin of the Buraku Liberation League is the , founded in 1922. However, in 1942, some of the leading activists, including Asada Zennosuke , were recruited into the military...
is considered one of the most militant among burakumin's rights groups. The BLL is known for its fierce "denunciation and explanation sessions", where alleged perpetrators of discriminatory actions or speech are summoned for a public hearing before a panel of activists.
Early sessions were marked by occasions of violence and kidnapping, and several BLL activists have been arrested for such acts. The legality of these sessions is still disputed, but to this date the authorities have mostly turned a blind eye to them except in the more extreme cases.
In 1990, Karel van Wolferen
Karel van Wolferen
Karel van Wolferen is a Dutch journalist, writer and professor, who is particularly recognised for his knowledge of Japanese politics, economics, history and culture....
's criticism of the BLL in his much-acclaimed book The Enigma of Japanese Power
The Enigma of Japanese Power
The Enigma of Japanese Power is a political text book by Karel van Wolferen. The book was written in 1989, and is a critical account of the business, social, and political structure of Japan. The title of the book addresses the mystery and awe that many Americans and Europeans had toward the...
prompted the BLL to demand the publisher halt publication of the Japanese translation of the book. Van Wolferen condemned this as an international scandal.
The other major buraku activist group is the National Buraku Liberation Alliance (全国部落解放運動連合会 Zenkoku Buraku Kaihō Undō Rengōkai, or Zenkairen), affiliated to the Japanese Communist Party
Japanese Communist Party
The Japanese Communist Party is a left-wing political party in Japan.The JCP advocates the establishment of a society based on socialism, democracy and peace, and opposition to militarism...
(JCP). It was formed in 1979 by BLL activists who were either purged from the organization or abandoned it in the late 1960s due to, among other things, their opposition to the decision that subsidies to the burakumin should be limited to the BLL members only. Not all burakumin were BLL members and not all residents of the areas targeted for subsidies were historically descendent from the out-caste.
The Zenkairen often came head-to-head with the BLL, accusing them of chauvinism. The bickering between the two organisations boiled over in 1974 when a clash between teachers belonging to a JCP-affiliated union and BLL activists at a high school in Yoka, rural Hyōgo Prefecture
Hyogo Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is Kobe.The prefecture's name was previously alternately spelled as Hiogo.- History :...
, put 29 in hospital.
In 1988, the BLL formed the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR). The BLL sought for the IMADR to be recognized as a United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Non-Government Organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
, but in 1991, the Zenkairen informed the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
about the alleged human rights violations committed by the BLL in the course of their 'denunciation sessions' held with accused 'discriminators'.
However, when suspected cases of discrimination were uncovered, the Zenkairen often conducted denunciation sessions as fierce as those of the BLL. Nonetheless, the IMADR was designated a UN human rights NGO in March 1993.
On 3 March 2004, the Zenkairen announced that "the buraku issue has basically been resolved" and formally disbanded. On 4 March 2004 they launched a new organisation called "National Confederation of Human Rights Movements in The Community" (全国地域人権運動総連合 'Zenkoku Chiiki Jinken Undō Sōrengō') or Zenkoku Jinken Ren.
Religious discrimination
While nearly all Japanese Buddhist sects have discriminated against the burakumin, the case of the Jōdo ShinshūJodo Shinshu
, also known as Shin Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism. It was founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Today, Shin Buddhism is considered the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan.-Shinran :...
Honganji Sect is a particularly bitter and ironic one. The original philosophy of the sect, as propounded by its founder Shinran
Shinran
was a Japanese Buddhist monk, who was born in Hino at the turbulent close of the Heian Period and lived during the Kamakura Period...
, was anti-discriminatory, rejecting the need to keep the traditional Buddhist precepts or to carry out the purification rituals of indigenous Japanese religion. As such, butchers, fishermen and so on, who had all been discriminated against by the older sects, were welcomed into the Jodo Shinshu.
The side-effect of this liberating philosophy, however, was that it led to a series of anti-feudal rebellions, known as the Ikkō-ikki
Ikko-ikki
', literally "Ikkoshū Uprising", were mobs of peasant farmers, Buddhist monks, Shinto priests and local nobles, who rose up against samurai rule in 15th to 16th century Japan. They followed the beliefs of the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Buddhism which taught that all believers are equally saved by Amida...
revolts, which seriously threatened the religious and political status-quo. Accordingly the political powers engineered a situation whereby the Jōdo Shinshū
split into two competing branches, the Shinshu Otani-ha and the Honganji-ha. This had the consequence that the sects moved increasingly away from their anti-feudal position towards a feudal one.
Later the state also forced all people to belong to a specific Buddhist school according to the formula:
In consequence the Honganji, which under Rennyo
Rennyo
' was the 8th Monshu, or head-priest, of the Hongwanji Temple of the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Buddhism, and descendant of founder Shinran. Jodo Shinshu Buddhists often referred to as the restorer of the sect , and for this is also referred to as Rennyo Shonin...
's leadership had defiantly accepted the derogatory label of 'the dirty sect' (see Rennyo's letters known as the Ofumi / Gobunsho) now began to discriminate against its own burakumin members as it jostled for political and social status.
In 1922, when the National Levelers' Association (Zenkoku-suiheisha) was founded in Kyoto, Mankichi Saiko, a founder of the movement and Jodo Shinshu priest, said:
Finally in 1969 the Honganji began to recognise its mistreatment of burakumin and appears to be beginning to address the problem.http://www.shindharmanet.com/writings/burakumin.htm.
The fact of religious discrimination against the burakumin was commonly denied until the late twentieth century. For example, in 1979 the Director-General of the Sōtō
Soto
Sōtō Zen , or is, with Rinzai and Ōbaku, one of the three most populous sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.The Sōtō sect was first established as the Caodong sect during the Tang Dynasty in China by Dongshan Liangjie in the 9th century, which Dōgen Zenji then brought to Japan in the 13th century...
Sect of Buddhism made a speech at the "3rd World Conference on Religion and Peace" claiming that there was no longer any discrimination against burakumin in Japan.http://blhrri.org/blhrri_e/blhrri/Q&A.htm.
In popular culture
In High and Low (JapaneseJapanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
title 天国と地獄 Tengoku to jigoku, literally "Heaven and Hell") http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057565/, a movie adapted in 1963 from Ed McBain
Evan Hunter
Evan Hunter was an American author and screenwriter. Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952...
's King's Ransom, Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
made a political statement by having the main character work as a shoe industry executive who rose from humble origins as a simple leather worker, clearly implying (to Japanese audiences) his burakumin status.
The plight of the burakumin has also been presented in Hashi no nai kawa http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104395/ (橋のない川 "The River With No Bridge") a novel by Sue Sumii (住井 すゑ), which received several film adaptations, in 1969, 1970 and 1992. The title refers to the fact that areas in which burakumin lived were often separated by a river, but bridges to cross were rarely constructed.
Author Lian Hearn depicts a fictional feudal country highly similar to that of Japan's own history in the three-book series Tales of the Otori
Tales of the Otori
Tales of the Otori is a series of historical fantasy novels by Lian Hearn, set in a fictional world based on feudal Japan. The series initially consisted of a trilogy: Across the Nightingale Floor , Grass for His Pillow , and Brilliance of the Moon...
(2003–2004). The series depicts a caste system wherein "untouchables" live outside of mainstream society. The protagonist develops a friendship with one such outcast, a tanner who lives and works with other tanners in riverside settlements.
In Laura Joh Rowland
Laura Joh Rowland
Laura Joh Rowland is a detective/mystery author best known for her series of mystery novels set in the late days of feudal Japan, mostly in Edo during the late 17th century...
's 'Sano Ichiro' series, burakumin (naturally still referred to by the Feudal name 'eta') appear regularly. Sometimes they are criminals, and other times merely unseen witnesses. In The Concubine's Tattoo, Sano speaks with the chief of a small burakumin community named Danzaemon and notes that the man has a regal bearing about him despite his status. He even thinks to himself, "But for the misfortune of his birth, what a fine daimyo he might have made! It was a blasphemous thought, but Sano could more easily imagine Danzaemon commanding an army than Tokugawa Tsunayoshi."
In the book Rising Sun
Rising Sun (novel)
Rising Sun is a 1992 internationally best-selling novel by Michael Crichton about a murder in the Los Angeles headquarters of Nakamoto, a fictional Japanese corporation. The book was published by Alfred A...
, Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton , best known as Michael Crichton, was an American best-selling author, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted...
depicts a character (Theresa Asakuma) who is a burakumin descendant. Along the storyline, bits and pieces of history of this people are described to the reader.
In Cloud of Sparrows, by the Japanese-American writer, Takashi Matsuoka
Takashi Matsuoka
Takashi Matsuoka is a first-generation Japanese American writer. He lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, and worked at a Zen Buddhist temple before becoming a full-time writer. His books about American missionaries' visits to Japan are often compared to Shōgun and other books by British...
, and later in its sequel The Autumn Bridge, burakumin are often mentioned by the old name 'eta'. They are described as filthy beggars, more animal than human, and their life has no apparent value to the samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
, a fact that baffles the Christian missionaries visiting Japan in the novels.
In the award winning 2008 Japanese movie Okuribito (Departures), the main character Daigo becomes a professional coffiner, a line of work long reviled in Japanese culture for its association with the dead. It isn't explicitly mentioned, but a Japanese audience would recognise it as a job for burakumin. Despite Daigo having no mentioned ancestral background, the film portrays a sense of strong lingering discrimination to work associated with burakumin. As such he tries to hide his new profession from everyone, including his wife , who actually leaves him when she learns the truth. Rather than quit, he continues his work and achieves great fulfillment in seeing the gratitude of families after he performs his ceremony. Many characters in the movie, including his wife, undergo a radical change of heart from vilification to awe and respect after seeing Daigo work.
See also
- Buraku Liberation LeagueBuraku Liberation Leagueis one of the burakumin's rights groups in Japan.-Pre-WW2 period:The origin of the Buraku Liberation League is the , founded in 1922. However, in 1942, some of the leading activists, including Asada Zennosuke , were recruited into the military...
- Feudal Japan hierarchy
- Ethnic issues in JapanEthnic issues in Japan- Demographic :About 1.6% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign nationals. Of these, according to 2008 data from the Japanese government, the principal groups are as follows....
- CasteCasteCaste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
- AinuAinu peopleThe , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...
, the second largest minority group in Japan. - BaekjeongBaekjeongThe baekjeong were an “untouchable” outcaste group of Korea, often compared with the burakumin of Japan and the dalits of India and Nepal.-Social history:...
, the former outcast community of Korean society. - Dalit, the outcast community of India and Nepal.
- Cagot, the former outcast community of France.
- Irish TravellerIrish TravellerIrish Travellers are a traditionally nomadic people of ethnic Irish origin, who maintain a separate language and set of traditions. They live predominantly in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.-Etymology:...
External links
- The Headquarters of Buraku Liberation League
- The Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute
- The Burakumin: The Complicity of Japanese Buddhism in Oppression and an Opportunity for Liberation
- Cooperativeness and Buraku Discrimination, discussion paper by Takuya Ito in the electronic journal of contemporary Japanese studies, 31 October 2005.
- Solving Anti-Burakujūmin Prejudice in the 21st Century: Suggestions from 21 Buraku Residents, discussion paper by Alastair McLauchlan in the electronic journal of contemporary Japanese studies, 31 January 2003.
- Buraku: in Community, Democracy, and Performance by Bruce Caron
- ひょうご部落解放・人権研究所(Burakumin research institute)
- 全国部落解放運動連合会(National Buraku Liberation Alliance)→全国地域人権運動総連合 (National Confederation of Human Rights Movements in the Community) → Zenkoku Jinken Ren Blog
- 部落問題研究所 (Burakumin research institute)
- 京都部落問題研究資料センター (Burakumin in Kyoto research data)
- 自由同和会(Burakumin rights group)
- 全日本同和会 (Burakumin rights group)
- 部落解放同盟全国連合会 (Burakumin rights group)
- "Japan's Invisible Minority: Better Off Than in Past, but StillOutcasts". The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, November 30, 1995. Nicholas Kristof on the state of toleration at that time. - "Japan’s Outcasts Still Wait for Acceptance". The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, January 15, 2009. Article by Norimitsu Onishi on Buraku history and current status, with a focus on Hiromu Nonaka, a prominent politician of Buraku descent. - Old Japanese maps on Google Earth unveil secrets Sat May 2, 2009 - Jay Alabaster, Associated Press.
- "Mysterious Past Meets Uncertain Future in Tokyo's Sanya District". Digital Journal, October 31, 2009. Blair McBride on Buraku status of North-East Tokyo area.