Researching Multicultural Japan: Burakumin

The Burakumin, Japan's Invisible Outcasts - Brief Article A short overview by Richard Werly from 2001 of the history, current situation, and discrimination against Burakumin. BNET.

Burakumin An article from Wikipedia that looks at the numbers of burakumin, notable (famous) burakumin, the origins and history of the group, the burakumin rights movements, religious discrimination, and burakumin in film and fiction.

Burakumin An article about the Burakumin by Sawa Kurotani Becker from World Culture Encyclopedia, with the following sections:

The burakumin: Japan's underclass An article from 1993, by Raymond Lamont-Brown, looking at the history and origins of the Burakumin, their current situation (including discrimination against them and the position of a 'typical' Burakumin person), and political movements against the segregation of Burakumin. BNET.

Japan's Invisible Minority: Better Off Than in Past, but Still Outcasts Even today, there is no better way for young Japanese to give their parents heart palpitations than by suggesting a marriage to a burakumin, and most burakumin still live in segregated neighborhoods riven by crime, alcoholism and unemployment. The New York Times, November 30, 1995.

Reassessing Prejudice & Discrimination against Japan's "Burakumin:" Real or Politically Manufactured? Widespread or Disappearing? All of these? Osaka-based Japan Times staff writer Eric Johnston probes some of the assumptions and complexities behind the stereotype and realities about prejudice and discrimination against Burakumin in Japan. Kyoto Journal.

Solving Anti-Burakumin Prejudice in the 21st Century The overall impression from my 21 interviewees in Buraku X is that there are solutions to solving anti-buraku prejudice and that only if those particular solutions, predominantly BKD strategies, are implemented, will buraku residents start to see a decline in psychological prejudice. Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies

Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute (BLHRRI) For the purposes of eliminating all forms of discrimination including Buraku discrimination and establishing human rights in society, the BLHRRI conducts research and investigation in the fields of history, society, economy, legislation, culture, education and civil movements, and publishes results of research works. BLHRRI

The Burakumin: The Complicity of Japanese Buddhism in Oppression and an Opportunity for Liberation The eta or now more appropriately called burakumin—literally, “village people”—is an oppressed class within Japan. As noted by DeVos, the burakumin is Japan’s “invisible race. Journal of Buddhist Ethics.

Cooperativeness and Buraku Discrimination The Japanese are often described as being a cooperative people. If this is indeed the case, why do they discriminate against the Burakumin? Buraku discrimination is, thus, contradictory to Japanese people's cooperativeness. Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies

Hiromu Nonaka Throughout his life, he faced discrimination for his Burakumin family background. Nonaka also established and operated Japan's first care facility for individuals with profound physical disabilities during the 1970s. Wikipedia.

Obituary: Sue Sumii One of the largest burakumin populations can be found in Nara Prefecture, where the best-selling anti-discrimination novelist Sue Sumii was born, and this fact must undoubtedly have influenced her choice of subject matter, the daily lives of the burakumin. She started writing her great seven- volume saga Hashi no nai kawa (The River With No Bridge) in 1961, at the age of 59, an immense work of wide popular appeal that was to occupy her for almost the rest of her long life. BNET.

Nakagami, the pariah of Shingu "I write for a public that cannot read me. My mother, my sister, my brothers are illiterate like all the Burakumin." This is an interview with Kenji Nakagami, who was born in 1946 in the ghetto of Shingu, one of the Burakus who form the pariahs of Japanese society. Liberation.

Masaru Goto - Overcoming Hidden Discrimination This is the website for a very interesting photo exhibition by Masaru Goto: 'NIHONJIN, BURAKUMIN: Portraits of Japan’s outcast people'. "The Burakumin are a nearly invisible (yet identifiable) group of Japanese people. They are the remnant of a caste system that formally passed away long ago. Their ancestors were the untouchables. Despite being racially and ethnically Japanese through and through, the Burakumin still face discrimination and struggle together under the weight of their shared history." The exhibition has photos and short stories about the lives of 12 Burakunmin from a range of backgrounds. Global Compassion.com