Tax deduction.
Getting public jobs without test.
And many supecial subsidies and welfares only for them.
But some of them have discontinuied very recently after this book was published.
ISBN-13: 978-4796635462

Burakumin isn’t secret but the darkside of Burakumin society is the biggest secret.
If you want to know, please google with these keywords

同和(Dowa)
暴力団(Boryokudan)
山口組(Yamaguchigumi)　
ハンナン(Hannan)
浅田満(Asada Mitsuru)
中川昌史(Nakagawa Masafumi)

That’s pretty much urban legend.
It’s almost impossible to find out especially after “Kojin Joho Hogo Ho”.
And referring “Jinshin Koseki” has banned since 1968.
Temples nowadays do not allow visitors to see “Kakocho”.

Burakumin discrimination generally takes the form of “this area was a burakumin area, therefore people from that area are burakumin, and are therefore scum”. Trying to convince people that deciding a group is scum is a wrong choice is a noble but extremely difficult thing. Far better to attack on both fronts: try to convince them not to discriminate, and eliminate the information that an area used to be a burakumin area.

It’s kind of like fighting fire: you can remove the oxygen, reduce the temperature, or reduce the fuel. You don’t blame forest rangers for trying to put out forest fires by dumping water on the fire and also making fire breaks, instead of just dumping water on the fire.

Of course there is underlying fact to the history of the Barakumin. They were just like India’s untouchables: a group at the very bottom of the caste system, in fact so low that they were not even considered part of it due to their “unclean” jobs. Another fact is that are still companies today that do background checks on job candidates and screen out anyone whose ancestors come from a Barakumin area.

My husband (Japanese) noticed it, too, so I knew it wasn’t just me being potentially oversensitive. When he told his co-workers the next day about what a strange experience it was, they let him in on the history of that area of town, and about how they can be rather hostile toward anyone who seems foreign to the community. *shrug*

History is history.

The eta mura maps have the capacity to be abused just as much as the “Colored Only” photos could be abused by “white pride” guys. But that’s no reason to censor them.

(Although that makes me wonder if it’s “racism” and not some other form of discrimination? I don’t know)

Anyway, what I find interesting is that burakumin people are keen to hide and forget the fact that their burakumin to avoid discrimination- rather than fighting for acceptance and equality. I’m not saying they don’t do the latter, but their response here is clearly an attempt to hide things- to stop people from identifying burakumin who don’t want to be identified as burakumin.

I suppose ignoring it is the easier path- if everyone just forgets that such a distinction ever existed, there wouldn’t be huge problems. But I think in the long run a better, perhaps more difficult path, would be to confront the issue, and for the affected groups to actually demand a little respect.

Shame on google

The problems that exist today need to be addressed. It would be nice if people could look at things like these maps and see how far we have come as a culture rather than use them as a tool to discriminate.

And these days “Burakumin” is a derogatory word, too, except apparently not up here in Tohoku area for whatever reason.