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Opinion

The Buraku Struggle

By JULIET HINDELL


被差別部落闘争

被差別部落闘争 筆者は最近、被差別部落に関する取材をした。 イギリスにも差別はあるが たいていは皮膚の色や宗教の違いによるもの。 見かけでは区別がつかない人々への 理由もはっきりしない差別に対して 筆者は複雑な思いを抱いた。

I have recently been working on a special report for BBC on Japan's burakumin. That, I am told by my colleagues in Japanese media, is something they would rarely do. "It's just too sensitive," is the reason they give.

My report probably would not be news to Japanese viewers, but not many people outside Japan know about burakumin and that they are the objects of prejudice in Japanese society.

Of course in Britain people harbor deep prejudices. But there, prejudice is usually a matter of people's skin color or their religion, something which is easily identifiable.

For my report, I met Masahiko Morimoto, a man in his 60s who has spent his life treating leather by hand in the Takagi area of Himeji. The leather he produces is as soft as a whisper and is used for the finest handbags in Japan. But though his product is high class, some people in Japan treat him like a member of the underclass. Morimoto said he used to hide his origins for fear of discrimination but that now he is proud of his people and his craft.

But no one wants to take on his craft, and he fears it will soon die out. He says part of the reason is that it is associated with the burakumin. These days young people of burakumin origins have more choices than when Morimoto was a young man. Young people prefer not to reveal their background, and taking a job in the leather industry is an immediate sign that a person may be a burakumin.

It is hard for foreigners to understand the reasons for prejudice against burakumin. After all, Japanese people frequently say Japan is a homogeneous country where everyone — and that should include burakumin — is the same.

But burakumin still face prejudice. In my report I had to explain the meaning of buraku, an expression that was invented in the Meiji Era when the feudal class system, which included "eta," the unclean, and "hinin," the nonhumans, was supposedly abolished. Those names are a dark relic of Japan's history.

But despite efforts by the government and, more importantly, the Buraku Liberation League, people's prejudice is not going away. The BLL says that lists of burakumin areas are now being published on the Internet. The lists are used by employers to avoid employing burakumin. The use of the Internet makes it harder for the BLL to keep track of discrimination.

Morimoto said that prejudice exists in people's hearts. But he, like everyone else I interviewed, was at a loss to explain why some people in Japan still think the burakumin are unclean. It was even said they walk on four legs like animals.

Prejudice is a strange and ugly phenomenon and even stranger when it divides people who all look the same. I hope Morimoto can find someone to take up his craft. That would be a sign that the stigma attached to burakumin is at last going away.


Shukan ST: Sept. 3, 1999

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