An Introduction to the Buraku Issue

Questions and Answers

Suehiro Kitaguchi, Alastair McLauchlan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781873410837
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134250691
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Translated with an Intoduction by Alastair McLaughlin. The extent of discrimination against the Buraku communities is one of the most sensitive issues facing the Japanese government and the social coherence of contemporary Japan.

1
Does Discrimination against the Burakumin Still Exist, Even in This Day and Age?

• ■ 'Of course anti-Buraku discrimination occurred during the Edo Period, because of the caste system which operated then. But surely not in today's democratic society?'
• ■ 'We've got a modern, democratic constitution where our freedom to live and move where we like is clearly spelled out. I can't believe that there are still areas where discrimination exists.'
• ■ 'Everybody keeps talking about "prejudice this and prejudice that..." Don't you think it's just that those people are paranoid?'/etc

There are plenty of people who go around blithely making statements about how discrimination occurred during the Edo period because of the caste system which was in place at that time, and that it could not possibly still be happening in this day and age. Others take a slightly different approach with opinions such as 'People are making far too much fuss about discrimination these days'. Both notions are firmly entrenched and are common among people who have set ideas about the Buraku question, people who share the same approach by ignoring or belittling the problem, simply because they have never come to grips with the truth.

In the context of Buraku and other human rights problems, the most pressing need is to gain an insight into the realities of discrimination and human rights' violations. The Minamata Sickness Incident is one obvious example of a human rights violation which was never taken seriously, for it was here that, in answer to demands tor accountability at governmental and corporate level, some sections of the media downplayed the misery and sufferings of the victims and continued to issue offensive reports which portrayed them as nothing more than a group out to milk the system for all they could get. Subsequent court cases have now established clear governmental and corporate responsibility tor the Minamata incident and generated widespread publicity about the current circumstances of the victims. Although this has meant that such slanderous reporting is no longer socially acceptable, the fact remains that while the whole truth about the Minamata victims remained unexposed, those media reports had created a definite impression in many people's minds. There are many other tangible examples which clearly illustrate how ignoring or belittling the realities of discrimination and human rights violations in this way leads inexorably to the wrong conclusion. There are three major considerations in looking at the question of whether anti-Buraku discrimination really has disappeared.

The Truth about Intense Anti-Buraku Discrimination

First of all, we have to find out just what the current Buraku situation is.¹ A 1984 survey into Buraku conditions revealed that among the more than 800 non-designated regions (areas which, in spite of being Buraku regions, have not been formally designated as such by the government, and which, therefore, remain untargeted by Dōwa Initiative projects) there are many where improvement projects are totally nonexistent. If we include the plight of such non-designated regions within the Buraku picture, the overall situation of Buraku people up and down the country is even more depressing than can actually be illustrated by statistics in this book.

Health is one such area of concern, and because personal well-being and economic circumstances are so closely related, numbers of Buraku people who become ill and the range of illnesses they sufter are twice the national average. Employment difficulties are one of the underlying causes of health and economic problems, and there are many areas where numbers of Buraku people without work or currently looking for work

Figure 2 Unemployment Rates - 1984 Nationwide survey on Buraku conditions

Figure 3 1984 Survey into Buraku employment - Part-time, day labour, work schemes etc.

exceed 10%. If we put this alongside the low figure of 44.8% who are in regular employment and the 23.4% plus who are engaged in the precarious areas of part-time work, day-labouring or short-term employment, the real picture of discrimination begins to emerge. Some 56% of employed Burakumin work in very small companies with fewer than thirty employees, a figure which is more than 1.7 times the overall national statistic, and one which clearly shows how they are largely excluded from the medium and large companies. The result of these employment patterns is that the average annual income for a Buraku household is 2.438 million yen (average per capita income of 692,000 yen), which is only about 60% of the national average family income of 4 million 129 thousand yen (average per capita income of 1.09 million yen).

Two ramifications of these income statistics are firstly that the monthly disposable income per Buraku household is 1.56 million yen, again about 60% ot the overall national figure of 2.29 million yen, and secondly that 9.7% of Buraku people are receiving some form of social weltare assistance, 7.9 times the national average. Some people believe that the ratio may in fact be even lower, however, in that there are considerable numbers of people living outside Buraku areas who are also likely to be welfare recipients, while the levels of disparity within Buraku communities suggest that the same could apply to those areas as well.

What gave rise to this state of affairs was that, citing post-oil shock economic difficulties and the necessity for self improvement and self-reliance, the authorities stepped up intensive programmes of getting people into the workforce on one hand, while reducing welfare eligibility for low income earners on the other, thereby making economic independence impossible except for the physically handicapped, the aged, and solo mother families.² We have simply ended up creating conditions which spawn feelings of jealousy and reverse discrimination. The earlier quoted statistic ot Buraku social welfare recipients being 7.9 times the whole ot Japan, is an average one, there being independent prefectures well in excess ot this figure, such as Tokushima (21.1%), Kagawa (25.1%) and Fukuoka (15.9%). A further example of the plight of Buraku people is that 25% of

Figure 4 Buraku Social Welfare Assistance - 1984 Survey of Buraku conditions

Figure 5 University Entrance - 1984 Survey of Buraku conditions

Buraku social welfare recipients are likely to continue their dependence for at least 10 years.

If we turn our attention to education, we find that 6.1% ot Buraku people never receive any formal education, and that only 3.4 % graduate from a university. Equality of education has been denied for far too long in that these statistics are about the same as existed over thirty years ago for all Japanese with no formal education, and twenty-five to thirty years ago for all Japanese graduating from a university. Although figures clearly show that numbers of Buraku children entering secondary school have increased, another indicator of the seriousness of the situation is that in places such as Osaka, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka, school drop-out rates are twice the national average. The infringement of the educational rights of Buraku women is also widespread, as witnessed by the high ratio of female students who receive no formal education whatsoever, and the fact that numbers of Buraku women who graduate from university are very low.

Age discrimination is also a feature of the Buraku situation. While secondary school graduates form the largest group among twenty-year olds, the largest group among thirty-year olds is represented by those whose education was limited to the basic compulsory level. In the sixty-plus age group, numbers who have had no formal education are very high. The tragic result of discrimination in education is that 30% of all Buraku people have some level of difficulty in reading and writing. A further example of age discrimination is disparity in annual income, with Buraku households containing elderly residents (i.e. 60 years and over) earning 2.385 million yen per annum, barely more than half the national figure. Of these Buraku households, the highest single statistic is 28.6% with an annual income of between 1 million and 1.99 million yen. This can be compared with 20.1% of all Japanese households with elderly residents, which receive between 2 and 2.99 million yen per annum

In spite of the tact that 80% ol all Buraku people live in farming villages, the truth of this statistic is that only very few ol them actually make their living from agriculture. Of those who are actively engaged in farming (Figure 6), 8.8% are full-

Figure 6 Cultivated land per farming household (Hectares) - 1984 Survey into Buraku conditions

time professional farmers, with 7.5% farming as a principal side-line, and 83.7% farming as a secondary side-line. These statistics for full-time professional farmers and principal sideline farmers are well below the national averages, while conversely, numbers of Buraku farming as a secondary sideline are well in excess of figures for the whole country. Agricultural discrepancies are further illustrated by the comparatively small areas of Buraku land under cultivation, for compared with the national average of 0.82 hectares per farming household, the average Buraku holding is only 0.5 of a hectare. Sixty-six per cent of Buraku farmers actually hold less than 0.5 of a hectare, and of these farmers, 44.3% own less than 0.3 of a hectare.

Housing provides yet another clear illustration of the Buraku plight, and while on the one hand it is true to say that housing standards have improved in some areas, there remain many Buraku areas where Dōwa Initiative Projects are completely lacking, and where everyday experiences of discrimination are just as harsh as they always were. Yamane Prefecture is one such example, and although a 1975 survey there revealed 91 Buraku areas, 1,796 households and a total Buraku population of 5,909, the reality is that not only are actual numbers well in excess of those reported, but also that many of the communities are very poorly located behind stop banks, on the tops of cliffs and in low-lying swamplands, completely at the mercy of winds and floods. The location of one particular village is such that every time the adjoining river breaks its banks in heavy rain, the village becomes the 'high water mark' with houses being flooded up to the roof-line and cultivated fields completely submerged. Although in 1984, long-promised funding was finally set aside and remedial works got under away, these have not proved sufficient and the problem remains. There are a great many villages in similar circumstances, and even in Osaka, where more environmental reforms have taken place than anywhere else, discrimination in housing has still to be eradicated.³

Deep-Seated Feelings of Prejudice and Some Serious Incidents of Discrimination

The second consideration is the relationship between the realities of Buraku circumstances and public feelings of prejudice. Most people are happy to stand up and claim that they do not harbour any feelings of anti-Buraku discrimination, and that as far as they are concerned, any such attitudes are well and truly on the way out. Outward appearances are not always what they seem, however, and when their own personal interests are compromised, or when they hear that a member of their own family is to marry someone of Buraku origin, people are quick to show their true colours in no uncertain terms.

Just how easily anti-Buraku attitudes can be passed from person to person is clearly illustrated by the following examples. Firstly, during a survey into human rights awareness held in Takatsuki City, Osaka, in response to the question 'In what context did you first hear about the existence of Dōwa areas?', 53.7% replied 'In a negative context'. A second example involves a young woman who, in 1985, was employed at a large weaving loom manufacturer in Ibaragi City, Osaka. She became engaged to a young man employed at the same company but because of her Buraku background was so severely discriminated against that, not only was the wedding called off, but she was also forced to give up her job at that company. The third case, which also took place in Osaka in 1985, was the public announcement by a confectionery distributor that 'In accordance with company policy, this firm will not employ Koreans or people from Dōwa areas'.⁴ Yet another example has been the regular exposure, since the latter half of 1985, of cases where bogus lawyers have dishonestly obtained family registers and sold them through underground channels. One person involved in the activity explained how he had got hold of the registers for checking the backgrounds of marriage partners, 80% to 90% of which involved checking for any Buraku connections.⁵ Continued discrimination by public servants is a further cause for consternation, and examples of prejudice at this level include statements made in April 1985 by semor staff at the Inland Revenue Department in Nagano City, acts of discrimination by guards at the Kooichi Prison, and the illicit trading of copies of family registers among staff in the Bullet Train General Office of JNR. The list is endless, but the above examples provide clear evidence of just how far from the truth lies the commonly-heard proclamation that 'Anti-Buraku discrimination is clearly on the way out'.

The third and final task then is to establish just where all these incidents of discrimination, depicting as they do, a mixture of public consciousness and fact,, actually fit into the overall picture, and it is fair to say that the situation is deteriorating, with less and less light at the end of the tunnel. In Osaka alone, escalating levels of anti-Buraku prejudice generated almost 400 incidents for the 12 months of 19...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Does discrimination against the Burakumin still exist, even in this day and age?
• 2 Is there an easy path to understanding anti-Buraku prejudice?
• 3 If people would just forget about it for a while, wouldn't discrimination go away?
• 4 Buraku people are discriminated against because they live in their own little communities
• 5 Buraku ancestry, employment and religion are different from our aren't they?
• 6 Why are we now witnessing these Dōwa Initiative Projects?
• 7 Talking about Buraku Liberation Activities, what is this Denunciation Committee?
• 8 'Apparently there has been an increase in discriminatory graffiti and posters etc...'
• 9 What about this Ordinance to Regulate Personal Background Investigation Conducive to Buraku Discrimination?
• 10 What about the Fundamental Law on Buraku Liberation?
• 11 The connection between various International Covenants on Human Rights and Anti-Buraku Discrimination
• Appendix One
• Appendix Two
• Appendix Three
• Appendix Four
• Appendix Five
• Index