Buraku Discrimination in Japan

In Japanese culture there has long been a distinction between purity and pollution. This has manifested not only on the inanimate level, but also has included discrimination between pure people and impure people. In the feudal ages of Japan there were the specific social class distinctions of a warrior/ruling class, artisans, peasants, and merchants. Below all of those existed a group of people considered too impure to be within the class structure. The “outcastes,” as one might consider them, often performed occupations such as executioners, butchers, tanners, handlers of the dead, and, oddly enough, entertainers. They were not limited to people with those jobs, but they were a community of people, many of whom held the polluting occupations.
Those outcaste communities were referred to as Buraku, and the people in them Burakumin. The origin of discrimination of those people has been debated, but two theories remain accepted. One is that during the feudal times the victors of war forced the conquered people into poor employment situations as a strategy of “divide and rule.” The other theory is that the distinction developed more slowly as Confucianism and Buddhism developed as dominant belief systems. These -isms along with Shinto-ism upheld the taboo of impurity, and so promoted the idea that the above-mentioned types of employment polluted the individuals in those professions. Whichever the origin of the discrimination, the idea of the Burakumin being lesser people in society became fixed firmly among Japan’s majorities.
In current times, Burakumin make up an estimated three million of Japan’s 150 million population. The determination of Burakumin is no longer limited to occupation, but is based on communities and family origin. There are around 6,000 acknowledged Buraku communities in Japan. The Japanese government has identified these communities as special areas of need because of past and current discrimination based wrongs done to the Burakumin.
Discrimination of the Buraku has manifested in areas such as gaining employment, at the workplace, in schools, in communities, by public officials, by religious agencies, and by the media (“Buraku Discrimination” p. 8-9). Burakumin have consistently been below the national averages in the areas of high school admittance, employment, and high school and college graduation percentages due to discrimination. In 1998 the Buraku Liberation League discovered that many companies in Osaka had performed background checks of perspective employees to determine whether the individual was of Buraku origin. Similar types of companies have been known to advertise not hiring Burakumin to show the company’s inclinations towards purity.
The discrimination of Burakumin is not simply done in larger scales, but also at the personal level. One example in a report given at the Global Conference Against Racism and Caste Based Discrimination located in New Delhi in March 2004 gave the examples of discriminatory violence, graffiti, harassment letters, and discriminatory remarks on the Internet (p.7). These type of discrimination are very clear as to why they are inhumane and callous, but the most common form of discrimination happens in much more vague situations. This is especially true with discrimination like that done to the Buraku as compared to racism, sexism, or religious discimination because Burakumin are indistinguishable from other Japanese in appearance and religion. The other, and more prevalent in the world, types of discrimination have much more clear reason, even if irrational.
Yuki-sensei, the teacher introducing Buraku discrimination to the EAC students, explained hearing about individuals of non-Buraku origin being jealous of Buraku people because of social programs like free health care, even though there are only just 892,000 Burakumin actually receiving such welfare. On one such occasion she heard a non-Buraku individual complaining about a Buraku woman drive up to a dentist’s office in a valuable car and present a healthcare fee waiver at the desk. This is an example of the vagueness that exists in the discrimination of Buraku peoples. The discrimination takes the form of resentment rather than direct aggression or antagonism.
Anti-discrimination Buraku movements have been able to accomplish the acquisition of social assistance programs for Burakumin such as welfare, healthcare aids, community centers, and after school programs through lobbying the Japanese government for many years. The EAC students visited one such community center in Kyoto called the Kodomo Center, which has after-school programs for Buraku children. After introductions to issues of discrimination, the students of the EAC were split up, and asked to participate in some of the activities with the Buraku children. The activities involved papermaking, bamboo vase making, and constructing and decorating gift boxes for pottery that was made on a previous occasion. The purpose of this activity was to introduce the EAC students to a social program for the Buraku community in Kyoto.
The children at the Kodomo Center seemed to average in the sense that there were smart ones, hyper ones, quiet ones, and every other quality one could expect of a child. At first the kids were a little shy with the older college students, but it did not take long for them to warm up and enjoy the presence of the foreigners. They were so normal that it seemed impossible for anyone to think them lesser beings.
When attempting to assist the children with making gift boxes I felt a slight feeling of rejection from some of the kids. It felt a bit like grade school again because some of the kids formed groups, and did not allow others to use their tools and supplies. My first attempt to help a group was rejected. Moving further down the table there was one girl who seemed to be a little lost. She was willing to receive help in outlining the shapes of the box in order to cut them out. She was rejected by the same girls as I when she asked to use the first group’s scissors. It seemed as though there was a popularity rift between them. I felt a connection with her because of memories of similar rejection at a young age. After feeling that connection, it seemed as though helping her make the box as beautiful as possible was a good way to show some appreciation for her as a struggling individual.
I made a small rose for the top of her box, and when finished I presented her with the gift. She seemed to be truly grateful, and accepted it with a small laugh. Afterwards, her friends kept pointing at me and giggling. Throughout this experience there was an undercurrent of in groups and out groups. Some say that it is a normal social pattern among children and adults all over the world, but being that these children were already from an oppressed community I assumed that they would have been less exclusive. People often feel that they must reject others in order to give themselves a higher status, but it is a very sad way to increase self-esteem.