Burakumin

History

In fact communities were put at the variation of the company of the feudal era, because they occupied of the trades considered as “dirty”, because having a relationship with death or a ritual impurity. Thus, the Undertaker's assistant S, the Torturer X, the to stop S and the tanner S, in general trades in relation to the ground, blood or death, belonged to the class of bet (穢多, “Eta”). They always traditionally lived in their own hamlets and moved back ghettos. Until 1871, they could not remain on the road when they crossed citizens " normaux" , they were neither to eat, neither to drink nor to remain downtown at the fallen night.

Released legally in 1871 with the abolition of the system of feudal caste, social discrimination in their opposition however did not cease. They do not return yet in any caste, since completely put at the variation and regarded as inferiors in the social hierarchy. They can be compared with the Intouchables in India. Since the years 1980, more and more of young people buraku are organized to protest against the social discrimination of which they are victims.

Social status

Contrary to the other classes, even in the worst case (see “ Hinin ” or “ eta-hinin ”, literally “the very dirty ones”), the burakumin were born burakumin and could not hope to change group. In spite of the official abolition of the statute of in 1871 Bet, the Discrimination S of which they were the object did not completely disappear and certain layers of the modern Japanese population would not marry their children with a member of a family whose line would include/understand a burakumin . Certain real owners (while refusing to rent) or certain companies (while paying less) practice the segregation towards the burakumin . Today, the community burakumin account more than two million people, dispersed in the Ghetto S of the big cities such as for example Ōsaka or Kyōto.

To speak about this subject in the Japanese company remains excessively delicate.

Figures

The number of burakumin in modern Japan varies much according to the source used. A ratio of 1993 ordered by the Japanese government counted more than 4.533 the communities of buraku (dōwa chiku (同和地区, “of the zones of assimilation”, officially listed for projects of integration). The majority are sitent in the west of Japan, one counts there 298.385 households for a total of 892.751 residents. The size of each community varies from less than 5 households to more than 1000, with 155 households of intermediate size. Approximately the three quarters are localized in rural sectors. The distribution of the communities changes area with area considerably. No community was identified in the following prefectures: Hokkaidō, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, Fukushima, Tōkyō, Toyama, Ishikawa and Okinawa.

The league of release of Buraku (Buraku Kaiho Domei), on its side, evaluates the number of burakumin to almost three million. the BKD disputes the advanced figures by the government because according to this association, its figures are inaccurate: all the burakumin do not live in poverty, and not being poor, they do not request the subsidies of the government, which are used to enter them. The others prefer to remain in the financial problems in order not to publicly declare that they are burakumin, it is better “ to be the equal one to poor Japanese that a burakumin helped ”.

Burakumin and Yakuza

The burakumin accounts for 70% of the members of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest clan Yakuza of Japan. According to Mitsuhiro Suganuma, a former member of Security Agency Intelligence, 60% of the whole of the yakuza are burakumin .

Notes and references of the article

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