Eri Kobayashi

Eta/Hinin system was built up in Edo period to categorize people in a hierarchical way. This system is one of characteristic discrimination forms in Japan which has led to “Buraku discrimination” today.

Eta/Hinin lived in a certain district called buraku so they are called “burakumin”.

The factor of buraku discrimination lies in the backgrounds of their ancestors. They were divided into a group of Eta or Hinin on grounds that they had committed crimes, they were homeless, or unable to pay taxes out of poverty. They usually did the work like nobody would want to do such as talking care of dead bodies, working in a sewage disposal plant, skinning animals, and the like.

Up until now, especially in our grandparents’ generation, it was common to see people from buraku. At school, there were often 2 or 3 students from buraku in a class. According to my grandmother, people could tell if he or she was from buraku according to where they lived. My grandmother said that she was told not to be close to burakumin by her parents, otherwise she would get into a trouble. At that time, many people had a bad image over burakumin and they had to face severe discrimination in finding jobs, marriage, and education.

But now, the situation is different. Buraku area has been reconstructed and improved its condition as a government policy initiated to correct a gap between buraku and other areas. Also, after experiencing a rapid economic growth, people have moved in and out, so buraku areas are no longer a place peculiar to burakumin. Like this, buraku discrimination has gradually become an unfamiliar matter for young people and children.

Although buraku discrimination is now cooling off, the word of “buraku” still seems to be considered as a taboo. I have learned about buraku as a part of moral education(dowa education) in high school and was taught that “we shouldn’t talk about buraku so easily in public because some people hide their origin and can get hurt by your inconsiderate words”. After listening to a teacher say like this, I felt I was forced to be always aware of buraku discrimination though I can’t really see or know about it around me. It is indeed important to pass on a story of buraku to prevent further discrimination, but if it is done excessively or in a wrong way, the result will be otherwise.

Buraku areas dispersedly exist in Japan, so education level of buraku should be limited to each area, for example, a place where used to have a large number of burakumin. Since these places have a deep and long history of buraku and people have more chances to get to know about it from their families, relatives, or schools, they can have a better understanding about the discrimination, accordingly,  dowa education can finally reach its goal to stop discriminstion from spreading ever again.