Burakumin - Current Numbers, Terminology, Historical origins, End of feudal era, Post-war situation, Burakumin rights movement

An outcaste group in Japanese society, concentrated in about 6000 ghetto communities and numbering 1–3 million; the target of extreme discrimination with regard to employment, marriage, and residential segregation. Their origins go back to the Edo feudal period of the 17th-c, when impoverished Japanese in lowly occupations were segregated. The class was officially abolished in 1871, but to no great effect: some militancy within the group since the 1920s has also had little impact.

Burakumin (部落民: buraku, community or hamlet + min, people), or hisabetsu buraku (被差別部落 "discriminated communities / discriminated hamlets") are a Japanese social minority group. The burakumin are one of the main minority groups in Japan, along with the Ainu of Hokkaido and residents of Korean and Chinese descent.

They are communities of descendants of outcast communities of the feudal era, which mainly comprise those with occupations considered "tainted" with death or ritual impurity (such as executioners, undertakers or leather workers) and traditionally lived in their own secluded hamlets and ghettos.

The long history of taboos and myths of the buraku left a continuous legacy of social desolation.

Current Numbers

The number of burakumin asserted to be living in modern Japan varies from source to source. A 1993 investigation report by the Japanese Government counted 4,533 dōwa chiku (同和地区 "assimilation districts" - buraku communities officially designated for assimilation projects), mostly in western Japan, comprising of 298,385 households with 892,751 residents.

The Buraku Liberation League, on the other hand, extrapolates Meiji-era figures to arrive at an estimate of nearly three million burakumin.

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.

Terminology

The term 部落 buraku literally refers to a small, generally rural, 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.

Hisabetsu-buraku (被差別部落 "discriminated community/hamlet") is a commonly used term, with people from them called hisabetsu-burakumin (被差別部落民 "discriminated community (hamlet) people") or hisabetsu buraku shusshin-sha (被差別部落出身者 "person from a discriminated community / hamlet").

Burakumin (部落民 "hamlet people") is actually an abbreviation and therefore its use in the Japanese language is sometimes frowned upon, although it is by far the most commonly used term in English.

Mikaihō-buraku (未開放部落 "unliberated communities" ) is a term sometimes used by human rights pressure groups and the one which has a degree of political ring to it.

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 .

Tokushu buraku (特殊部落 "special hamlets") was used in the early 20th Century but is now considered inappropriate.

In the feudal era, the outcast caste were called eta (穢多, literally, "full of filth"), a term now obviously considered derogatory.

Some burakumin refer to their own communities as "mura" (村 "villages") and themselves as "mura-no-mono" (村の者 "village people").

Historical origins

The word burakumin is used to describe descendants of outcaste communities in feudal Japan, most of them being eta (穢多) who worked in occupations relating to death, such as executioners, undertakers or leather workers.

According to Japan, a Modern History, 2002: (cited here ),

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.

There are many theories as to how and in which era the outcaste communities came into existence.

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.

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.

End of feudal era

The feudal caste system in Japan ended in 1869 with the Meiji restoration, and in 1871 the newly formed Meiji government issued a decree called kaihorei(解放令 "Emancipation Edict") giving outcastes equal legal status.

There were many terms used to indicate former outcasts, their communities or settlements at the time. The term tokushu buraku (特殊部落 "special hamlets", now considered inappropriate) started being used by officials in 1900's, 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 "assimilation" movement which encouraged improvements in living standards of buraku communities and integration with the mainstream Japanese society, and the "suiheisha (levellers)" movement which concentrated on confronting and criticising alleged perpetrators of discrimination.

Post-war situation

Whereas in many parts of the country buraku settlements, built on the site of former eta villages, ceased to exist by the 1960's either by urban development or by integration into mainstream society, in other regions many continued to suffer from slum-like housing and infrastructure, and lower economic status, literacy and general educational standards amongst residents.

However, cases of social discrimination against residents of buraku areas is still an issue in certain regions.

Cases of continuing social discrimination are known to occur mainly in western Japan, particularly Osaka, Kyōto, Hyōgo and Hiroshima regions, where many people, especially the older generation, stereotype buraku residents (whatever their ancestry ) with associations with squalor, unemployment and criminality. Kaplan 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 prejudice most often manifests itself in the form of marriage discrimination, and less often, in employment. 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% .

The "Tokushu Buraku Chimei Soukan" Incident

In November 1975, the Osaka branch of the Buraku Liberation League were tipped off about an existence of a book called "A Comprehensive List of Buraku Area Names" (特殊部落地名総鑑 Tokushu Buraku Chimei Soukan). The book contains 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 an individual's address to determine if they are 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, and 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 (身元調査, private investigation into one's background) 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.

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.

After World War II, the National Committee for Burakumin Liberation was founded, changing its name to the Buraku Liberation League (Buraku Kaihou Doumei) in the 1950s.

Even into the early 1990s, however, discussion of the 'liberation' of these discriminated communities, or even their existence, was taboo in public discussion.

Branches of burakumin rights groups exist today in all parts of Japan except for Hokkaido 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; 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.)

The Buraku Liberation League and the Zenkairen

The Buraku Liberation League is considered one of the most militant among burakumin's rights groups.

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.

The other major buraku activist group is the All Japan Federation of Buraku Liberation Movements (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 the late 1960's by BLL activists who were purged from the organisation due to their opposition to the decision that subsidies to the burakumin should be limited to the BLL members only. (Not all burakumin were BLL members.)

The Zenkairen often came head-to-head with the BLL, accusing them of chauvinism.

In 1988, the BLL formed the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR).

However, when suspected cases of discrimination were uncovered, the Zenkairen often conducted denunciation sessions as fierce as those of the BLL.

In 2004, the Zenkairen ceased all campagning activity and effectively disbanded after announcing that "the buraku issue has basically been resolved".

Religious discrimination against burakumin

While nearly all Japanese Buddhist sects have discriminated against the burakumin, the case of the Jōdo Shinshu Honganji Sect is a particularly bitter and ironic one.

The side-effect of this liberating ideology, 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.

Later the state also forced all people to belong to a specific Buddhist temple according to the formula:

"the imperial family is in Tendai, the peerage is in Shingon, the nobility is in Jōdo (Honen's followers), the Samurai is in Zen, the beggar is in Nichiren, and Shin Buddhists (Shinran's followers) are at the bottom." (Kasahara 1996)

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:

"We shouldn't disgrace our ancestors and violate humanity by our harsh words and terrible actions.

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 Soto 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..

Finally in 1969 the Honganji began to recognise its mistreatment of burakumin and appears to be beginning to address the problem..

Burakumin in film and fiction

In High and Low (Japanese title 天国と地獄 Tengoku to jigoku, literally "Heaven and Hell") , a movie adapted in 1963 from Evan Hunter'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) the main character's burakumin status.

The plight of the burakumin has also been presented in Hashi no nai kawa (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.

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).

In the House episode Son of a Coma Guy, the title character is asked to explain why he decided to become a physician. He recalls a burakumin hospital worker so unprofessionally dressed that House thought he was a janitor, until he watched the Japanese medical staff consult this doctor, when no one else knew how to help a patient, because he was right.

Credits

Main text originally from Library of Congress, Country Studies.