Meiji Gakuin Course No. 3505/3506 Minority and Marginal Groups of Contemporary Japan

Tom Gill Lecture No. ６

Burakumin 被差別部落民 PART 2 1985: Demanding a Basic Law on Buraku liberation A very successful movement Still no Basic Law, but the government has been shamed into taking a series of measures to improve life for Burakumin: Burakumin-related Legislation • 1969 Law on Special Measures for Buraku Improvement Projects • 1982 Law on Special Measures for Regional Improvements [5 year validity] • 1987 Law on Specific Governmental Budgetary Measures Concerning Projects for Dôwa Regional Improvements [5 years, later extended to 10] Serious spending

• 1969-1994 Over 17 billion yen spent on Special Measures projects in housing, health and education. The Special Measures Laws 1. Better housing (kairyo jutaku) with heavily subsidized rents in Buraku areas. 2. Grants to finance higher levels of education for Burakumin youths. 3. Soft loans for Burakumin-run businesses. 4. Libraries, culture centers, sports facilities etc. Education 1972: First mention of Buraku issue in school textbooks… until then ignored. Nowadays, a standard item in high-school social studies courses. See the paper by John Davis, ‘Blurring the Boundaries of the Buraku(min)’, in Globalization and Social Change in Contemporary Japan (ed Eades, Gill, Befu, 2000) for a ground-level account of life in the new, improved environment… Or check out these photos by Ian Laidlaw of a Buraku district of Osaka Ian’s comment The Buraku areas are now really quite nice looking places to live in. It is a huge contrast to the slums that they were 30 years ago. The changes are as a result of the dedicated efforts of the regional Buraku Liberation League, and the money that was allocated from the Special Measures Laws. Taisetsu-na jinken mamorou, jibun kara

The photo looks towards the local BLL headquarters and the message above the figure reads "Let us protect the important human rights on our own initiative" Facilities include a spacious gymnasium 30 years ago people walked around this Buraku to avoid it, and there were few facilities available for the people living within it, but now people are actually coming into the Buraku from the surrounding areas to use its facilities. These people are not Burakumin, and this is one of the keys to removing Buraku discrimination - to get non- Burakumin to enter into the Buraku communities and get to know the people there so that the myths about Buraku people are dispelled. The complex is also used as a gathering place for the Buraku children, where they can support each other and participate in the extra-curricular activities that are run for them by the local BLL. There are still gaps in academic achievement between Buraku children and non-Buraku children so after-school catch-up classes are also run for the Buraku children who are behind, and literacy classes are run for Buraku adults who did not attend school when they were children and never learned to write (this is still a big problem for the Burakumin). Roof-top swimming pool in Buraku district You can see surrounding non-Buraku areas in the background. Facilities such as this one, as with the sports halls, help to bring in non-Buraku children to mix with the Buraku children so that they do not grow up with prejudice in their hearts.

From Ian Laidlaw’s home page: http://www.geocities.com/gaijindo4dan/ Making taiko 太鼓 drums – a traditional Buraku occupation Ikari 怒り(“anger”)

．．．a group of Buraku taiko drummers Reference The Other Japan: Voices Beyond the Mainstream By David Suzuki and Keibo Oiwa Fulcrum Publishing, 1999 (first published 1996) Chapter 6, “Shared Blood, Different Futures” (pp. 125-168) is an ethnography of Osaka Burakumin, including interviews with Ikari members. Keibo Oiwa

Meiji Gakuin anthropologist, International Studies Dept The Burakumin have always been the people who made the Taiko drums (because making the drums involves leather production which was an outcaste occupation), but they were not allowed to play the drums until now. Ikari is one of the first Buraku Taiko groups to have emerged and when you sit in there and watch them play, you can feel the anger and the spirit of the Buraku people, coming back now to fight against hundreds of years of oppression. Meat-processing facility in a Buraku district of Osaka The SML is very well intentioned and has had some good effects

… however, THREE serious problems have emerged. Problem #1 How do you decide who gets the goodies? It is defined by location. So what about Burakumin living outside the Buraku? And what about non- Burakumin living inside the Buraku? The Japan Communist Party (JCP,日本 共産党) wants the latter to get the benefits… but the Buraku Liberation League (BLL, 部落開放同盟） says no… the BLL gets its way but the argument continues.

Problem #2

By providing social benefits specifically to Burakumin areas, the SML perpetuates the distinction between ordinary people and Burakumin… postponing the date when Burakumin can finally and completely merge with the mainstream… … if that’s what they want.

Key point: “Burakumin” is a term created by the mainstream in order to discriminate. It is not like being black, or being gay, or speaking a foreign language. The only thing distinguishing Burakumin from other Japanese is that they are discriminated against. So… Do they really want to be “proud to call themselves Eta” (as in the Suiheisha Declaration)

… or would they in fact be much happier and better off if the entire concept ceased to exist and they could be viewed simply as ordinary Japanese (which to nearly all intents and purposes, they are)? … an imponderable philosophical challenge that plagues the movement to this very day. Problem #3 Ironically, the SML actually created a new kind of discrimination against Burakumin. Since there were plenty of other poor people living in or near Buraku districts, but who did not get the subsidized housing and other benefits, they not surprisingly became jealous of the Burakumin… … a phenomenon known as netami sabetsu 妬み差別 or ‘envy discrimination’.

Sometimes it seems like…

…you just can’t win. I came across a classic case of “envy discrimination” in Osaka. In the day laboring colony of Kamagasaki, workers would have to pay about ¥1,000 a night to stay in a filthy doss-house. Next door was a “dowa chiku” 同 和地区where a decent apartment with 2 bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom could be rented for about ¥30,000 a month… if you could prove that you were of Burakumin ancestry… … of course, ¥30,000 a month is the same as ¥1,000 a night.

The day laborers of Kamagasaki resented this difference in treatment. “We are discriminated against too, and we are much poorer than them, yet they get the special treatment.” Dualistic discrimination?

Is it too fanciful to see a parallel between these two mutually critical discriminated groups (day laborers and Burakumin) and the feuding Hinin and Eta of the Tokugawa Era? Is there a pattern of dualistic discrimination, creating divisions among marginal people, running through Japanese history to the present day? 1992 The BLL announces that It will NOT campaign for any further extension of the Special Measures Laws… with the result that they lapse in 1997. The BLL decided…

… that the SML had served its purpose, in dramatically raising the standard of living of Burakumin. Now it was starting to do more harm than good. Ultimately the Burakumin would have to give up the goodies as a sacrifice in the pursuit of assimilation. … which has been going fairly slowly

Year All-Buraku Buraku / non- marriages Buraku marriages 1919 97% 3%

1963 64% 36%

1993 42.5% 57.5% … compared with Korean assimilation, for instance.

Year All-Korean Korean- marriages Japanese marriages 1960 66% 33% 1970 56% 43% 1980 42% 57% 1990 16% 84% 1995 17% 83% There’s also a big gender gap:

Female Burakumin are reckoned 2 to 3 times more likely then males to marry outside the Buraku…

… which naturally means that it’s getting harder for Burakumin men to find marriage partners. The Movement Divides

The Buraku liberation movement has always had a tendency to schisms. In recent years that process has accelerated, with mixed responses to the BLL’s decision to let the Special Measures Laws lapse. Today the Buraku liberation movement is divided into at least 4 factions:

1. 部落解放同盟（解同本部派） Buraku Kaiho Domei (Kaido Honbu-ha) 2. 全国自由同和会 Zenkoku Jiyu Dowa-kai 3. 全国部落解放運動連合会（全解連) Zenkoku Buraku Kaiho Undo Rengokai (Zenkairen) 4. 部落解放同盟全国連合会（全国連） Buraku Kaiho Domei Zenkoku Rengokai (Zenkokuren) 1. 部落解放同盟（解同本部派）

Buraku Kaiho Domei (Kaido Honbu-ha) Buraku Liberation League, Headquarters faction The original mainstream BLL: in recent years shifting line to accept the end of the Special Measures Laws. Officially claims a membership of 200,000; an activist told me the true figure was probably more like 150,000. 2. 全国自由同和会

Zenkoku Jiyu Dowakai National Freedom and Assimilation Association A group directly affiliated to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and hence on the conservative end of the spectrum. Interested in winning breaks for Buraku businesses. Membership may be around 50,000. 3. 全国部落解放運動連合会（全解連)

Zenkoku Buraku Kaiho Undo Rengokai (Zenkairen) The National Buraku Liberation Federation (NBLF) Affiliated to the Japan Communist Party (JCP, 日本共 産党), which believes that Buraku discrimination will wither away as Japan moves towards a classless society. Membership may be about 20,000 (?). Scrapped c. 5 years ago, replaced by general Human Rights group. 4. 部落解放同盟全国連合会（全国連）

Buraku Kaiho Domei Zenkoku Rengokai (Zenkokuren) Buraku Liberation League National Federation (BLL-NF). Hotly opposes the other groups, calling for all- out action to denounce anti-Buraku discrimination and revival of the SML. Maybe a few thousand members? Supported by Chukaku-ha far-left group. National meeting of Zenkokuren 部 落 解 放 同 盟 全 国 連 合

会

Inaugural meeting, Osaka, 1992, a direct response to the BLL’s decision on the SML that year Zenkokuren submits a petition against increased rents on housing in Dowa districts, 1999 Zenkokuren showing solidarity at a workers’ rally, Nov 1999 Report on Dowa Education in M district of A city, K district of B town A市M地区・B町K地区同和教育実態 調査報告

Ａ Study by Ai Kurosaka and Yasunori Fukuoka of two neighboring Buraku districts in Chiba prefecture (2006) 同和教育実態調査研究会 黒坂愛衣 ・ 福岡安則

K District K地区

K district has a long history as a large-scale Buraku. Some households still have jutte, metal truncheons used by guards in the Edo period. It is thought that this village had the job of protecting the gates to a nearby castle town and patrolling the highway. B町K地区は，千葉県下の被差別部 落としては古い歴史をもち，規模も大きい。十手 が伝わっているお宅もあり，かつては，このムラ の仕事として城下町入口や街道の警護をしてい たのではないかといわれる。 M District M地区

In contrast, nearby M district was created under a pre-war yuwa project (Buraku improvement projects, like postwar Dowa projects), as a new village to provide housing and agricultural land for people from K district. 隣接しているA市M地区は，戦前の融和事業で K地区の人びとによって開墾された農地に新宅 が出るかたちで集落が形成された，あたらしい 地区である。 As of 2005, there were 212 Burakumin living in 84 households in K district and 78 living in 27 households in M district.

2005年時点で，この地域に暮らしてい る部落住民は，K地区が84世帯212人， M地区は27世帯78人。

The case of Ms. R of K district（b. 1974, aged 30 in 2005) “About 20 years ago, I had a lover. We visited each other’s houses all the time, and there was talk of marriage. His grandparents were living with his family, and every time I visited, the grandfather gave me a really dirty look. I thought it was because he disapproved of me spending the night with his grandson.” 20歳前の頃のこと。当時の恋人とは，お互いの 家を年じゅう行き来し，結婚の話も出ていた。相手 の家は二世帯同居。遊びに行くと，おじいさんは， いつも嫌な顔をする。「そのときは，わたしが夜遊 びに来るから，嫌な顔をしてると思ってた」。 “One day I had just parked my car outside their house, and was about to open the front door, when I noticed the old man standing there with his bamboo broom. He loved cleaning up, and he used to sweep up outside the house in the evening.” ある日車を止めて，門を開けようと思ったら， おじいさんに――あの，お掃除大好きで，い つも竹ボウキで，夜，お外を掃いてるおじい さんで。“あっ，またホウキ持って，あそこに いる。” “I thought “uh-oh, there he is again… I don’t like the look of this.” But I said “good evening” to him and was just opening the door when he said Buraku woman, go home! And don’t come back! I was totally confused… in a blind panic.” 嫌だなぁ”とか思いながら，「こんばんわぁ」 とか言って，門を開けようとしたら 「部落 の女は帰れ。二度と来るな」って言われま した。なにがなんだか，パニックでした。

Ms. U（born 1974, 32 in 2005） When I started at elementary school, they put me in a special after-school class for students from K district needing extra help with studies. After a couple of years I started wondering why just the kids from my part of town were getting special treatment. 小学校にあがると，K地区の学力向上学級に通う。 はじめは「通ってあたりまえ」と思っていたが，小学 校2，3年になると，じぶんの地区の子どもだけが学 校以外で先生に勉強をみてもらうのを「変と思う」よ うになる。 I started asking my parents and teachers why we kids from K district were treated differently from all the others. It felt weird. “なんで，わたしたちだけ教えてもらう の？”っていう違和感があった。ほかの子 たちには教えないじゃないですか。

Interviewer: Wouldn’t the teachers explain? Ms. U: No. They just said they’d come to teach us, and they never mentioned the Buraku thing. I think I asked my mother next. 《聞き手》先生たちは説明してくれた？ 《Uさん》してくれません。先生たちは，ただ， 勉強を教えに来てくれただけで，部落のこと とかは，いっさい〔触れなかった〕。たぶん， 私親に聞いたかもしれない，お母さんに。 My mother wouldn’t give me a straight answer either. She’d claim she didn’t know. “Anyway, they’ll teach you stuff, and all the other local kids are going to the classes, so you just go along too.” ごまかしっていうか，ちゃんとは答えな かった。「知らない」とか。「でも，〔勉強を〕 教えてくれるんだから，まわりの子は行っ てんだから，行きなさい」って〔言われた〕。 Mr. D（born 1968, 36 in 2005)

“When I was at elementary school, I was the only kid in my class who didn’t have to pay for school lunches. The teacher told me, in front of all the other kids, “you can hand in the school lunch cash envelope empty.” 小学生のとき，クラスのなかで自分だけ， 給食費が「免除」になっていた。クラスでひ とりだけ，「〔給食費の袋は〕カラでいいで すよぉ」って，みんなの前で言われるから。 (Once a week the children had to hand in an envelope containing a small amount of money to pay for their school lunches. Because Mr. D was a Burakumin, he was excused payment. Handing in an empty envelope is a device to avoid embarrassing children from poor households… which the teacher ruins by telling all the kids about it. How sad!) (It reminds us of the disastrous move by the Meiji era authorities when they abolished the Eta and Hinin classes in 1871, but replaced them with the term “shin-heimin” (new commoner) rather than just “heimin” (commoner), thereby undoing all the good work and allowing the discrimination to continue. Is this coincidence?) I wondered what made me different from all the other kids. I asked my parents why we were the only family that didn’t have to put any money in the school lunch payment envelope. They just said “oh yeah – that’s because of the League.” (Dōmei ga aru kara). ただ，自分とこは，違うのかなぁって〔思っ た〕。それで，〔親に〕聞いたことあります。 なんで，うちだけ，いつも袋〔にお金を〕入 れなくていいのって。「うん，同盟があるか らね」〔という一言だけの返事だった〕

Lying to his classmates “My classmates used to ask me about the lunch money. I told them “actually I do put money in the envelope.” It was a lie. So I would never hand the envelope over to the teacher in front of everyone. I would just hand it over when there was no-one else around.” 〔給食費について〕「なんでぇ？」って〔クラスメ イトに〕言われる。「いやぁ，ちゃんといつも〔お 金を〕入れてるよぉ」つって〔嘘を言うしかなかっ た〕。で，給食袋も，みんなの前では渡さないで。 先生〔だけ〕の前で，はい，って〔渡した〕。

What do these case studies tell us about the lives of young Burakumin today? And what do they tell us about the policies to help Burakumin? Meanwhile anti-discrimination has become a required civic virtue in districts with large Burakumin populations… Anti-discrimination propaganda for kids (Settsu city, Osaka pref.) • The Buraku problem: Occupational discrimination formed in the course of Japan’s historical development forced one part of the Japanese people into an inferior economic, social and cultural position for a long period of time. • 部落問題は、日本社会の歴史的発展の過 程で形づくられた身分差別により日本国民 の一部の人々が長い間、経済的・社会的・文 化的に低い状態を強いられてきました。 • These people were discriminated against just because they were born in a Dowa district, and even today they face barriers to marriage, unfair treatment in employment and all sorts of discrimination in everyday life. • これらの人々は、同和地区に生まれたという、 ただそれだけの理由で差別され、現在におい ても今なお結婚を妨げられたり、就職で不公平 に扱われたり、日常生活の上で各種の差別を 受けることがあります • There are also countless cases of racist insults and graffiti. This kind of discrimination is a serious human rights problem. • また、差別落書きや差別発言もあ とをたちません。このような差別は 重大な人権問題です。 Many attempts have been made to eliminate discrimination, but the psychology of discrimination has still not been sufficiently wiped out. 差別解消のためのいろいろな取り組み がなされてきたにもかかわらず、心理的 な差別の解消は、まだまだ不十分な状 況にあります。

We ask for the creation of bright human relations based on mutual trust, where people will not be troubled by prejudice, where human equality and dignity are respected 偏見に惑わされることなく、人 間の平等と尊厳を守り、お互いに信頼し 合える明るい人間関係を築いて、差別を 解消することが私たちの願いです.

… with frequent poster campaigns. Let’s get rid of Buraku discrimination … … has your heart woken up yet? “Harmony between heart and heart… let’s nurture it carefully.” (1996) “We are all family”

(1997) If you have any problems with discrimination just tell the Human Rights Defense Committee… who seem to be foreigners themselves… Students are made to write essays about human rights A poster denouncing “ese dowa koi”: fraudulently claiming benefits by pretending to be a Burakumin. … and those benefits can be substantial. May 2006 Tobishima-kai Scandal Kunihiko Konishi, 72, president of an Osaka- based foundation called the Tobishima-kai, is arrested and charged with embezzling ２68 million yen from the profits of the Nishi- Nakanoshima car park, which was “effectively functioning as a Dowa project.” 財団法人「飛鳥会」（大阪市）理事長、小西邦彦 容疑者（７２）が事実上の同和対策事業だった 西中島駐車場（閉鎖）の収益２億６８００円を着 服していたため大阪県警に逮捕された。 Now who’s discriminating?

Sometimes movements against Buraku discrimination seem to imply that it is wrong to discriminate against them because in fact they are no different from other Japanese… … which in turn, might be taken to imply that it IS all right to discriminate against people if they are NOT just like other Japanese…

… damn foreigners for instance. “This kind of discrimination exists? There’s no discrimination in my nest.” (1998) – cf Davis p. 121 Why?

… is it wrong to discriminate against her? Because she’s a fellow human being (as the poster clearly states)? Or because she is a fellow Japanese (as it possibly implies, some might say)… Buraku movement seeks solidarity

The Buraku Liberation League sponsors a group called IMADR, reaching out to other discriminated groups around the world. It is very active today. 反差別国際運動

Results of a survey in Aichi pref., of 600 people, conducted in 2000

85% have heard of Burakumin, or Dowa people, etc. But 13% of those people still think they are a different race… Two famous Burakumin In an earlier lecture, I was able to give you a long list of famous “Japanese” films stars, sporting heroes etc. who were actually Korean. The Buraku identity is more taboo, and better hidden. I can only name two famous people who are definitely Burakumin… both are controversial. Hiromu Nonaka, former secretary- general of the LDP… Japan’s most famous Burakumin A boy from the boondocks…

Born into a poor Burakumin family in Sonobe, Kyoto pref., he works on the railways and becomes a militant railway unionist. Elected to the Kyoto city assembly, he harangues the Communist leadership for ignoring the Buraku problem, and then moves up to national politics. Sympathetic with Koreans too…

… yet in every other respect, a very conservative, nationalistic politician. A political lifetime in the LDP, he masterminded legislation to enshrine the Hinomaru and Kimigayo as Japan’s official national flag and anthem in 1999. His basic line seems to be “solve the Buraku/Korean problems, so we can be proud Japanese nationalists again.” Hiromu Nonaka

Enigma Kenji Nakagami

1946-1992

中 上 健

次 The Cape 岬 Publisher’s blurb

“Nakagami's startling, vigorous writing depicts the ghetto life of Japan's outcaste class (burakumin) he knew intimately. In shocking contrast to the West's perception of a controlled and Zen-like Japan, young buraku workers struggle with incest, rape, murder, and suicide. Women use sex to control and escape, their many children fathered by a variety of men. In a network of alleys and ditches, these villagers are bound by complex blood ties that are both comforting and oppressive.” Won the Akutagawa Prize… An uncomfortable figure for the movement. Rape, murder and incest in squalid slums is not the desired image.

The Local Situation Consciousness-raising in Yokohama

December 2009 meeting organized by BLL Yokohama chapter Nobuhiko Kado’oka 角岡伸彦 Rare case of an “out” Burakumin who speaks frankly about it

全国屠場労働者組合 National Union of Slaughterhouse workers November 26, 2009 横浜市金沢区六浦