Marriage officially gives us the status of connection with somebody. It is more like an addition of something else. Sometimes it gives a different status to somebody. Thus, it is even possible to transform somebody to “another” person through a marriage.

As an example which can obviously gives somebody different status, international marriage can be examined. Some might change their family name to an “unfamiliar” one. Their children might look “different” in some ways. Their marriage life itself might be culturally and socially mixed, as well. Their family connection would include something “different” from “ordinary” ones. Some would say it is difficult to get married with somebody from other countries, because of the complexity of cultural and social background that both s/he has.

However, is that type of complexity found only in such an international context? Is there no opportunity when those something “different” arises? It actually exists, hidden in the shade of this Japanese society, in the issue related to Buraku. There is a history that people from Buraku have faced to marriage discrimination. They have faced to the discrimination across various fields; here I focus on the issue related to marriage.

 As it is mentioned above, marriage creates something “different” around spouses. Particularly, if it is the marriage between Buraku people and Non-Buraku people, these something “different” often hit them. Marriage gives “different” status on the spouse as s/he has a relationship with Buraku. Their children would be included into that structure, although they do not look different from others or they might not know until they grow up. Even spouses family would be included into this structure, since they would be, for example, ‘parents of a person who have a direct connection with Buraku’. Though there would be much more of examples clarifying discrimination, it is quite comprehensive to see how the impact of marriage between a person from Buraku and not. There are so many cases of tragedies such as suicide.

 Then, what is that something “different”?

 Is this International? –No.

Is that Inter-racial? –No?

Or is that intercultural? –…?

It is basically from the social, cultural, and even historical background of somebody. It is not because of personal failure that the person made; rather it is created by society. So it is possible to say that marriage discrimination towards people from Buraku is quite irrational.

But is it really irrational?

We can see in this way: if the one from outside Buraku married with the one from Buraku, it affects badly in her/his life. Thus, s/he gives up the marriage for their better life. This is a RATIONAL way, isn’t it?

This might be one of the reasons why the marriage discrimination towards people from Buraku still exists. As the discrimination itself is quite irrational amongst the personal life but rational amongst society, how should we consider this issue? Can you marry with people of non-/Buraku? If so (or not), how do you deal with the problem on your life?

by Anonymous

Victor Ugarte is the director of Institute Cervantes de Tokio. At the entrance, there are many kabuki characters exhibitions from a glamorous princess to a chic-looking Edo-period merchant. Ugarte says “To understand Japanese, you should first watch some kabuki,” so that he is one of those who was changed their lives by encountering kabuki.

When he was 12 years old, his grandfather brought back a kabuki record and poster for Ugarte after attending an academic conference in Japan. This was his first encounter with kabuki. Although he did not understand why, the traditional theatrical art form soon captivated the boy with the mysterious sounds and words. He listened to the record so many times. Later, Ugarte majored in Art History at Barcelona University and studied Asian arts for receiving a PhD. Besides this study, he also acquired finance because he realized that art alone would not help him make a living. So he worked in the real estate industry as director of two companies in Barcelona, and then moved to Shanghai to work as chief financial officer for a Spanish multinational company in China.

In 2001, the Spanish government opened Casa Asia in Barcelona which was an official consortium to improve relationship between Asian and Pacific countries. Having heard that Casa Asia recruited staff member well-versed in Asia, Ugarte found himself in living in a completely different industry and turned over. He welcomed Casa Asia’s visitors by theatrical performances, movies, anime events and go games. In 2005, finally he came to Japan and saw kabuki in Kyoto for the first time. His love affair with kabuki for 30 years got fulfilled and it made him trembling.

After a while, Ugarte heard that the Institute Cervantes wanted a person who could find suitable location in building a center in Tokyo. He had worked in real estate industry and he is well-versed in Asia, that is, Ugarte was the person. In November 2008, the Institute Cervantes de Tokio was officially opened by Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. There are events ranging from Spanish language lessons to cultural lecture, for example film screenings and concerts, organized by 14 staff members.

Shochiku Co.’s kabuki event was held in this June. Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel laureate, watched the performance by Nakamura Kyozo and said female roles in kabuki came into the inner workings of women themselves, which moved Ugarte deeply. Sometimes an encounter with a foreign language and culture has so strong influence that it can change one’s life into exactly different one. In Ugarte’s case, it was the kabuki record.

by Chisato Morito

In the past, there was intense Burakusabetsu especially in Osaka that means people who are not Burakumin discriminate against Burakumin. Brakumin has lived on the lower ground and specific regions and had unique patterns on their family name. At that time, animal’s blood was taboo, so Buraku people handled such a situation and got meats and hides of animals in the Buraku area. All dirty things are pushed to the Buraku people, so that people who are not Burakumin don’t have to do and even see any dirty things.

Today, there are less Burakusabetsu relatively, but some envy of Burakumin who were segregated in the past because they now get favors from the government as a compensation of the past. Others say to their children as a part of discipline that they shouldn’t   make friends with Buraku children. In some schools, teachers teach students Burakusabetsu as part of class, and the teachers sometimes say that they don’t want to teach this because this is not modern but past affair.

It is true there are less Burakusabetsu, but definitely this exists. Some people say it’s because of the education about Burakusabetsu and adults shouldn’t teach children Burakusabetsu which is just past issue. People living nearby the Buraku area are taught about Burakusabetsu either by parents or by teachers, but people not living nearby the Buraku area are not taught about it at all because it’s not necessary. I’ m also not the exception of it. It is not until I moved from Hiroshima to Kyoto and entered this university that I learned Burakusabetsu, for there were not any Burakusabetsu around my region. It seems that some people are the same as me.

Then, is it okay to quit education about Burakusabetsu? I don’t think so. It is wrong to annul something previously done. I agree with education about Burakusabetsu if teachers add some more resources to it. As a fieldwork, students should visit the Buraku area, investigate not until partial knowledge but until enough entire knowledge, and consider what people have to do from now on, so that people will never repeat the stupid discrimination.

by Akimi Yano

There is a film “Ajia no junnshinn”. This film was finished in 2009, but some difficulties interrupted to show this film to public. Why?

This film shows the situation of Japan in 2002. In 2002, 5 Japanese abductees came back to Japan from North Korea, and negative criticism to North Korea was spreading in Japan. The main character is a Korean girl with permanent residence in Japan who has a twin sister. One day, her sister is killed by Japanese hooligans in a town. Another main character is a Japanese boy who is a high school student, and he looked the scene that she is killed. Two young boy and girl make a plan to make an indiscriminate terrorism to Japanese society with poison gas of old Japanese army.

This film was rejected to show by many Japanese cinemas or film festivals. However this film was showed in foreign film festivals. Some people in foreign countries said “It was a beautiful film.” Then in Japan, a lot of negative criticism about this film was online.

In addition, the actress who performed the main character is a Korean girl with permanent residence in Japan in her real life. She says “This film is not an anti-Japanese film. I think this film is a road movie of youth. I am glad that this film is a part of my memories of last of my teenage.”

Well, why did many Japanese cinemas or film festivals reject to show this film? I suppose two reasons. One is they themselves have negative opinions about revenge to Japanese society from Korean. Another is they afraid of reaction of people who watched the film. Why does such a film have to be disliked by Japanese people? We Japanese who watch this film might feel bad, but discrimination to Korean with permanent residence in Japan exists in real Japanese society. Can you declare that there is no discrimination to them at all? Films often involve exaggeration or dramatization. However we can receive any hint from films. I think we Japanese have to accept both of negative and positive aspect of Japan. It is better that we can think things from two opposite sides. If we don’t try to look negative aspects of Japan, our field of vision becomes very narrow. I think it is not good that such a film is excluded very easily in Japanese society.

by Ayako Miyamae

A new political party is to be formed early next year in Hokkaido, which aims to give political representation for the Ainu community. The representative will be Shiro Kayano, whose father is the first Ainu to become a member of the Diet. According to the party, they claim that there has not been enough policies implemented to preserve the Ainu culture and community identity.

Indeed, Ainu has long been deprived of legitimate political rights or representation. There is a history of Ainu oppression under Japanese control, and forcing them to abandon practicing or preserving their culture. The Japanese government never publically recognized Ainu as an ethnic minority until 1997. Even then, the governmental advisory board that developed 1997 Ainu Culture Law, Shingikai, did not have a single Ainu person in the committee. It was not until 2008 that Ainu was officially recognized as indigenous to Japan.

It is obvious that the Ainu need more political attention: not in words but in policies. According to Asahi Shimbun, the formation of the party emerged from heightened discontent among Ainu because of the failure of state authority to delivery of public policies for the Ainu.

For any ethnic minority, a proper political representation is an important step for forming a strong cornerstone for the community, and it is the responsibility of all democratic societies to provide such opportunity. In the case of Ainu, however, I wonder if an “ethnic party” could create a greater separation between Ainu and non-Ainu—and if a true representation is even possible.

According to the news article, the candidates for the next election are going to be (but not limited to) Ainu. However, it is difficult to know who is Ainu or not because the Ainu community has been actively promoting intermarriages between Japanese and Ainu in order to lessen the burden of discrimination against their children. Therefore, many people of the Ainu community today would have both Ainu and Japanese identities. Moreover, the Ainu community in Japan is not strictly regional; there is a vibrant Ainu community in Tokyo as well as several places across Hokkaido. Could there be a negative impact on the rest of the society? If there are so many Ainu that are not necessarily “fully” Ainu, how should the new political party reflect this? Is it possible that people of both Ainu and Japanese descent would face a pressure of having to choose one identity over the other?

I believe that the Ainu community needs to have their voices heard properly, and that formation of a political party is a significant step towards a better Ainu community life. This will probably also cause a lot of debates and strong emotions to be aroused within the Ainu community, as well as with the greater Japanese community—so that we could finally evolve as a whole.

(Source: http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1029/TKY201110290538.html)

by Nanako Kurioka

We often heard this word, “Being proud of Japanese” especially right after 3/11, this word imply that people in Japan unite and keep social order even though they experience and face such a terrible accident. It is so true but I felt something strange from this word and situation. We should not miss the fact that there are definitely people who are not “Japanese”.

We talked about what is the meaning of being Japanese through some subjects in classes.

This subject reminded me of my feeling toward the situation after 3/11 as I mentioned above.

I don’t think much about my nationality, being Japanese in my daily life. I cannot say that this situation is common among the people in Japan, but it is one of the general senses.

However, sometimes consciousness of being Japanese suddenly becomes remarkable among people. This phenomenon means elevation of people’s consciousness of group they belong to.

Then, I’d like to mention the situation after the earthquake happened in March 11 as a concrete example to explain that phenomenon and to present one of the aspects of what we can grasp from the situation after 3/11.

What phenomenon was there after 3/11? This is quite personal feeling but I do remember that I strongly felt something strange from this phenomenon.

After 3/11, there were tendencies such as that people frequently said they were proud of being Japanese. It was quite easy for us to find this word (which sounds even common slogan for Japan) on newspaper, Internet and TV.

It is natural that the incident which caused extensive damage to a certain society makes people more be conscious of their community and others who belong to same community and unite each other than usual. Naturally enough, people want to share same feeling or consciousness through experience same incident in order to overcome it. This situation also brought and spread the word “GANBAROU NIPPON” over Japan. In consequence, this phenomenon unites people to try to overcome this terrible incident.

However, I felt that we should look this situation carefully spread over japan after 3/11. I mean this has also negative side that we tend to miss the fact that there are actually Non-Japanese people who have been also suffered from that terrible incident in Japan at that time.

In terms of the word, I don’t belong to NOT “Japanese” group, but I just imagined how non-Japanese people who experience this huge accident in 3/11 felt this tendency I mentioned above. This seems to be the problem just only about what words we should use, but it is not the essence of the phenomenon. I think the situation after huge incident happen in society has exclusive side, positive one as well.

Nationalistic elevation is not always negative thing, but we should look and think carefully what kind of aspects that phenomenon after 3/11 has, not just look the limelight.

So, I’d like to ask class mates to tell me how do you think that phenomenon.

by Misa Kono

Let me begin with my experience. I was born and brought up in Kyoto, where it is said that douwa problem still remains. As far as I remember, I had douwa kyouiku classes in elementary school, junior high school, and high school. I don’t remember the detail, but I do remember the video I watched maybe in elementary school. In the video, one burakumin-girl was discriminated when she tried to get job just because she was burakumin, and she was again discriminated when she was getting married. After watching it, we all were required to tell how you felt about the video. That’s all. This is the typical way of douwa kyouiku I think. But to tell you the truth, I think this kind of education is nearly nonsense. It’s very easy to say “discrimination is evil” isn’t it? Who would be against it? I was just a little boy at that time but I wonder that class made sense.

If you call douwa education like I had as a positive approach, there is a kind of negative approach as well. Some people believe that ignoring and stopping telling children about buraku will eliminate discrimination and buraku problem will disappear. Their theory is sometimes referred as “netakowo okosuna” theory. “Netakowo okosuna” is a kind of proverb, which means let a sleeping child asleep (it corresponds to “Let sleeping dog lie” or “Wake not a sleeping lion” in English). Their argument is sometimes based on the fact that people in kanto or touhoku, who hasn’t been told about buraku problem in school are unaware of it. A half-century later, people who know much about buraku or who discriminate buraku people will pass away and unaware people will be left. In this way, buraku problem completely disappears. They think douwa education promote discrimination rather than solve it. What is more, some of them believe douwa education is designed to retain douwa problem by people who have interest in anti-discrimination activities.

The theory of “netakowo okosuna” is often criticized for these following reasons. First, ignoring can’t be a solution. Even you ignore it, discrimination still exists. Discriminated people will not be helped if everyone is blind to the problem. Second, ignorance can lead and spread lies, wrong information, rumors that are not true. You can discriminate burakumin without awareness. Third, you should know the truth, what happened in the past, and what is happening today.

In my opinion, “netakowo okosuna” theory will work because I think it is poverty that causes problems on buraku people rather than discrimination itself. As some statistics show, the conditions and living standards of buraku people are much better than before, and discrimination is declining. Therefore, I strongly believe the solution for douwa or buraku problem is not douwa education, but the policies to help people get out of poverty. My opinion is really close to that of JCP, or Zenkairen, and quite different from that of BLL(Kaidou), who promotes douwa education.

Useful links
The introduction of Zenkairen http://www.geocities.jp/zenkairen21/08.html
BLL (Kaidou) http://www.bll.gr.jp/

by Anonymous