Changing Forms of Buraku Discrimination in Contemporary Japan Speaker: Mariko Akuzawa, Professor, Osaka City University

1. Changing Forms of Buraku Discrimination in
Japan
Mariko Akuzawa
Research Center for Human Rights,
Osaka City University
Jan. 2020

2. Introduction
Sharing of basic information
•Anti Buraku-Discrimination Act (Dec. 2016)
(Act for Promotion of Eliminating Buraku Discrimination )
The act came into force along with two other anti-discrimination
acts in the same year.
• anti-Hate Speech Act
• Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with
Disabilities

3. Anti Buraku-Discrimination Act
It clearly states
‟Buraku discrimination is still existing”
‟ the forms of Buraku discrimination is changing
along with the development of information
society”

4. What is Buraku discrimination?
• Descent-based discrimination.
• Discriminatory practices have survived to date.
• It takes place in time of marriage, employment, or when
buying real estate, etc.
• UN treaty body (the Committee on the elimination of
racial discrimination, CERD) recognized it as descent-
based discrimination, whereas Japanese Government
rejected the recognition.

5. Definition of Discrimination in UN HRs
conventions
• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (ICERD)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW)
Article1.1 ICERD
In this Convention, the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction,
exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or
ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the
recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and
fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other
field of public life.

6. Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Victoria,
Australia)
• EOA is Victoria's anti-discrimination law.
• In Victoria it is against the law for someone to discriminate against
you because of your attributes.
• Article 7. 2(d)
Discrimination on the basis of an attribute includes discrimination on
the basis that a person is presumed to have that attribute or to have
had it at any time.
➡List of attributes includes age, gender identity, sexual orientation,
disability, physical features…..and “personal association with a person
who is identified by reference to any of the above attributes”.

7. Origin of discrimination
• Originates in feudal class hierarchy structured in 16th -
17th century.
• Classes were divided into worriors, townspeople, and
farmers. Burakumin were outside of the class division,
assigned to official duties which were considered
impure due to the Buddhist belief.
→official duties and rituals “to purify the filth”
• Emancipation order was issued in 1871 (Meiji period)

8. National Statistics (1993)
Designated districts under Dowa Special Measures Laws
• Number of Dowa districts (Buraku communities) 4442
• households in Dowa districts 298,385 / 737,198
• Population in Dowa districts 892,751 / 2,158789
• % of residents with Buraku ancestry 41.4%
Prefectures with large number of districts
Fukuoka 607 Hiroshima 472 Ehime 457 Hyogo 341…
Prefectures with small number of districts
Nagasaki 3 Yamanashi 6 Fukui 6 Aichi 9 …
Average number of households/district
National Ave. 67.2 Kanto region37.7 Kinki region 163.3

9. HRs awareness survey conducted by Tokyo
Metropolitan government (2014)
• Questionnaires were sent to randomly selected 3000 residents above 20
years old. Percentages are based on the number of respndents (n=1573).
• 26.6% responded that they would make reservation about
the marriage of their sons/daughters with the partners with
Buraku ancestry.
• 29.8% of respondents thought that marriage refusal is a still
existing problem.

10. Discrimination in time of purchasing real
estate?
• In feudal society, social status was heredity; the outcaste populations
are only allowed to marry the same social status; and freedom of
movement was not allowed (except in time of marriage, adoption of
child, and few other occasions).
• They formed their own villages.
• The village (community) as a whole was a target of discrimination.
BURAKU SABETSU
(community, village, or hamlet)
“Euphemic expression of communities where descendants of
outcasts have historically lived”

11. BURAKU SABETSU as “community-
based” discrimination
• it explains how present-day Buraku discrimination functions.
• In modern society, people have the freedom of movement.
• People migrate as a result of urbanization, economic growth, wars,
natural disaster etc.
• Despite the move, discrimination did not disappear, as people care
more about the background of future in-laws and potential
employees, as it became difficult to tell who’s who.

12. Family registry record (KOSEKI)
• Family registry record (koseki) had been popularly used for
background checks, as you can track the oldest family address by the
records.
• Public access was restricted in 1972. except eight legal professions.

13. Protection of family registry records created
new forms of discrimination
• When family registry record was no longer accessible, old family
addresses (or even new ones) became a new indicator to judge a person’s
Buraku ancestry.
• It is because during the feudal period, their social class (outcast) , their
official duties were fixed; they formed their own villages and basically
they were not allowed to move freely (except marriage, adoption etc).
• Underground sales of directories (names and locations of Buraku
communities) were repeatedly detected.

14. • Present-day Buraku discrimination is primarily based on
address.
• A person’s address, or his/her/their parent’s are referred.
• The stigmatized category of Buraku, which based first and
foremost on an individual family linage has come also to
depend on one’s family address. This means that people with
no connection to outcaste status could be labeled as
Burakumin and face discrimination.
(IMADR,https://www.imadr.org/sayama/buraku.html)

15. Attitude survey in Sakai City (2015)
• In Sakai City, 42.3% of respondents replied that they
would avoid living within Buraku communities (either by
renting an apartment or buying a house, whereas 20.4%
disagreed with marriages between their children and the
partners with Buraku origin.
• Rejection to living in Buraku communities is almost twice
as strong as rejection to a marriage.

16. Reasons of avoiding living in Buraku
communities (Sakai City)
• Those who replied that they would avoid living in Buraku
communities（n=534）were asked their reasons of avoidance.
• It was not surprising that one in four replied that “they avoid
because they do not want to be mistaken for Burakumin”.
• The result reflects the fact that majority citizens judge
individual’s Buraku origin primarily based on the address.

17. Property value matters in Buraku
discrimination?
Some respondents wrote their own reasons of avoidance in an
open space provided. 11 referred to the property values of the
land in Buraku communities.
• “Price is low, but difficult to resell the property.”
• “Property value in Buraku community may decline .”

18. Use of internet
• Internet had large impact on the practice of
background checks.
• Corresponding to the increasing users, information
such as locations of local Buraku communities have
been frequently posted on BBS and on social media
platforms.

19. Disclosure of the list of
Buraku communities
• Nationwide list of Buraku communities, including names and
addresses of more than 5300 communities was posted. The
data was copied from the informal report of the government
survey (1935)

20. •Petition was filed, and the court issued
provisional disposition orders to delete the
original websites.
• More than two hundred individuals from the
affected communities brought an action for
damages in 2016.

21. Permanence, itinerancy, reproducibility
of online postings
• Although the court ordered deletion of the website, the
directory of Buraku communities is still accessible on
different mirror sites.
• internet postings have permanence and itinerancy, and
even the content is removed, the same information
would be found elsewhere on a different online space;
and when a website is shut down, it can be quickly re-
opened using a web-hosting services with less stricter
regulations.
(Gagliardone et, al. 2015)

22. Psychological damages of victims
• The longer the lists stay on the websites, the more the
psychological pressure would be inflicted upon the victims,
as it permanently circulates and incalculable number of
anonymous viewers would see it.
• Significant anxiety of potential discrimination to them and
their family members.
• Insecurities may reinforce silence and invisibility of the
minorities in our society.

23. Impact of social media platforms
• Wiki was used to disseminate the directory of Buraku
communities.
• Wiki allowed multiple users to modify the content. More
information has been added onto the website by
“anonymous” users (with the use of Tor) .
Not only the use of digitalized media characterizes
present-day discrimination, but “digitalized interaction”
(Lawson-Borders 2003) does.

24. How can we teach younger generation ?
• When taught about Buraku discrimination, students google for more
information, frequently end up with viewing those harmful websites.
• If the students repeatedly view those websites out of curiosity, they
may be caught up in a filter bubble of discriminatory community.

25. New discourse of discrimination
• Outright expressions of prejudice still exist, while “new”
type of racist expressions are growing.
• “New” expressions do not take outright racist words but
endorses intolerance through seemingly political dissent,
using “rights languages”.

26. Such as,
“discrimination no longer exists, but the minorities are keep
saying that discrimination still exists. They are saying so to
draw special privileges from the authorities”.
• Such expressions are justified as “freedom of speech”.
• Prejudice is rationalized as a concern for justice
• Political dissent? ―It is difficult to convict this “new”
expression being discriminatory.

27. Similar to “modern” or “symbolic” racism” ?
• The “new” racial expressions look similar to the modern (or
symbolic) racism discourse?
• Racism is no longer a continuing problem.
• The failure of (any minority) to progress is a result of their
unwillingness to work hard.
• They are demanding too much.
• They get more than they deserve .
Is sense of threat that minorities are violating traditional white
American values (hard work, independence, meritocracy etc.)
connected to symbolic racism?
If the similar expressions are getting powerful in Japan, what are
the traditional Japanese values deemed threatened by minorities ?

28. References:
Akuzawa, Mariko. (2016) Changing Patterns of Discrimination in Japan: Rise of Hate Speech and
Exclusivism on the Internet, and the Challenges to Human Rights Education. In Taiwan Human
Rights Journal. 3(4): 37-50.
Gagliardone et.al. (2015) Countering Online Hate Speech. UNESCO Series on Internet Freedom. UNESCO.
Henry, P. J. & Sears.D.O. (2008). Moore, J. H., ed. Symbolic and Modern Racism. Encyclopedia of race and
racism. Volume 3 (1st ed.). Macmillan. 111–112.
International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (n.d.) Buraku Discrimination.
http://www.imadr.org/sayama/buraku.html retrieved on Jan.28, 2020.
Lawson-Borders, G. (2003). Integrating new media and old media. International Journal on Media