10 ms·

Japan's hidden caste of untouchables

140 points by rglovejoy 11y ago

patio11 11y ago
Many churches and temples in Ogaki have a sign in the window saying "We will under NO CIRCUMSTANCES assist with third-party ancestry investigations (身元調査)." This is largely because parish records (and the analogous paperwork at temples) can leak burakumin status or Korean ancestry, both things which Japanese people have ample reason to not want publicized about them. A sidenote: I debated during college (in the US, prior to ever living in Japan, where I've been for about 10 years now). I was mildly notorious in debate circles for running a particular "case" (proposed instantiation of a government policy supporting the resolution which one would, as the government side of a debate, have to win was beneficial) on any resolution which would support it. For example, the resolution might be "The government shall limit the information it records about it's citizens." One team of the debate has to convince the judge that they have a concrete idea for how to do that. The other team opposes either that concrete idea and/or says "That case doesn't actually support the proposition our opponents are forced to support." The case was "abolish the koseki", a family register in Japan which was once considered semi-public information (this has been tightened up rather severely, but it still exists and companies often still ask to see yours) and which has a variety of ways to leak extraordinarily sensitive facts about one's family, in addition to being an odious institution for a host of other reasons. I say "notorious" for this case because, by American collegiate standards, the koseki is straight-out evil, and the reason we chose to run this case is because there are few ways to debate in favor of retaining it and all of them require you to be better versed at Japanese politics/policy than my debate partner and I were, which is unlikely to be true of any US debate team picked at random. I like to believe that my one lasting contribution to debate is convincing a lot of tournament directors to change the traditional wording in resolutions "The government shall $DO_SOMETHING" to "The United States federal government shall $DO_SOMETHING", because when we interpreted the government to mean "Japanese government" the other team invariably said something along the lines of "That's not what the resolution writer intended", to which I would say "You being ignorant of a major first world nation whose internal political issues are well-reflected in the academic literature may make this debate inconvenient for you to win but that does not mean I'm not allowed to pick something which fits within the clear definition of the word 'government.'" This drove people nuts. Ten years later I just had to get a copy of my family's koseki to apply for an apartment lease, upon which the renting agent said "Oh, you're American. Do you even know what this is?" Yep -- funny how life works out. (Why does my apartment renting agent need my koseki? To determine whether I'm the right sort of people to live in the really nice apartment we're moving to. Does "right sort of people" sound ominous to you? YEP, exactly as bad as you think it is.)
- PeterWhittaker 11y ago
  Would that I could upvote multiple times. Thanks for that.
- ue_ 11y ago
  >To determine whether I'm the right sort of people to live in the really nice apartment we're moving to. Does "right sort of people" sound ominous to you? Couldn't this possibly be unconstitutional? In Article 14 (I don't have my Japanese copy at hand): >All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin. That said, this only applies to citizens only, and you did mention the renting agent noticed you are an American. Horrible behaviour nevertheless.
  - patio11 11y ago
    It's certainly illegal, much like gender discrimination in the workplace, requiring excessive work hours of salarymen, and racial profiling by police officers are illegal.
  - e12e 11y ago
    I think it's a familiar pattern: first the attitude changes, then the law changes, and then the attitude continues to change. See: segregation, most of the rest of history.
- mc32 11y ago
  In practice, other than being burdensome for foreigners, does it have consequential effects on ordinary Japanese, in their view? I mean family registries are fascinating. In some places people are obliged to register people coming in and out of a household etc, like a living census. And for some jobs people have to provide family histories and professions, etc., but nevertheless the people I've spoken to aren't much bothered by as much as I seem to. For many, if not most or all, it just is. And, anthropologically it's fascinating.
  - zyxley 11y ago
ue_ 11y ago
>evidence, perhaps, that old, discriminatory habits may yet be consigned to history. There's ample evidence with regard to foreigners in Japan already.
- mahranch 11y ago
  This gets repeated a lot (the whole "Japan is racist!" trope) but it's nonsense. Actual studies carried out proved Japan is not only the least racist country in Asia, it's equal to most European countries. They're actually less racist than France. South Korea and India on the other hand, are orders of magnitude worse. See the study yourself: Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15... The reason why the myth gets perpetuated is because young, white affluent males go over there for whatever reason (teach for a while, anime, exotic extended trips, etc) and don't get treated like little princes. So they go back home, hop on their favorite "gaijin forum" and claim they were discriminated against and that Japan is racist. That's why young hot Japanese girls weren't throwing themselves at them, or why people weren't bending over backwards for them.
  - readymade 11y ago
    I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that "less racist than France" means "not racist". And even if you buy that silly study as an objective measure of the deeply complex topic of racism, it still marks Japan as less racially tolerant than the Anglo countries those who perpetuate that "myth" likely hail from.
    - mahranch 11y ago
      > And even if you buy that silly study I love how the study doesn't agree with your preconceptions so it must be "silly". The study was done by 2 Swedish researchers at a university, not by some online poll. It's backed up by academic rigor. That's about as hard science as it gets.
  - cthalupa 11y ago
hyperion2010 11y ago
The burakumin are the best argument against genetic causes of heritable lower intelligence (often invoked when talking about African American populations). In Japan many burakumin show significantly lower scores on standardized intelligence tests, however when they migrate out of Japan their scores recover to normal levels. Social caste is heritable. This was a favorite zinger that my evolutionary biology teacher liked to spring on unsuspecting students that tried to argue that they could demonstrate that low iq among AAs was due to genetic differences.
- 336f5 11y ago
  > This was a favorite zinger that my evolutionary biology teach liked to spring on unsuspecting students that tried to argue that they could demonstrate that low iq among AAs was due to genetic differences. And what happens when AAs migrate out of America, or when Africans migrate into America, hmm? The debate is not that simplistic and easily resolved, and your professor did you a disservice by pretending that it is and not discussing why his anecdote is not airtight (for example, immigrant samples are almost always contaminated by serious selection effects which are hard to measure and vary by group). By the way, how sure are you that your professor was even right in the first place (https://unsafeharbour.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/burakumin-and-koreans-in-japan/ https://unsafeharbour.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/burakumin-and...)?
- RottenHuman 11y ago
  They really are not a good argument against genetic causes of heritability of lower IQ scores in other groups. Their example (if true) only serves to proof that in their cases low IQ was cause by environment, which as partial cause for low IQ is not debated by anyone credible. It says nothing about genetic causes in other groups at all.
  - hyperion2010 11y ago
    Fair enough. But I think it is a good reminder that the gut reaction to invoke genetics when confronted with a heritable phenotype should be met with suspicion, especially given the tendency to treat 'intrinsic' traits as excuses for continued poor treatment/disregard.
Foy 11y ago
There are some strange superstitions w.r.t. death in Japanese culture. In Japanese the number 4 sounds sort of like death so it's a number they avoid a lot (it's missing from many elevator options, similar to how 13 is skipped sometimes) and patterns of squares are sometimes avoided to prevent having 4 corners meet (especially with straw mats). I had never heard of this, though. The class of untouchables who work close to death. Really interesting stuff.
- rangibaby 11y ago
  4 and 9 are avoided. 9 is a homophone for "suffering".
- shiro 11y ago
  As other comments pointed, this caste system itself isn't really a "secret". We learn in school that it had existed, and there are quite a few stories dealing with it (A novel "The Broken Commandment" (破戒) by Touson Shimazaki, and an epic manga series "Kamui" (カムイ伝) are among the best ones; both have been translated to English). However, things got complicated in modern society; officially the government denies the discrimination exist; some people still keeps prejudice; and the topic is used as a political tool.
- eevilspock 11y ago
  > similar to how 13 is skipped sometimes Sometimes? "Based on records of buildings with Otis brand elevators, as many as 85 percent of the high rises in the world don't have a 13th floor, says Dilip Rangnekar, spokesman for the Farmington, CT-based elevator maker." - http://realtytimes.com/todaysheadlines1/item/15685-20020913_13thfloor http://realtytimes.com/todaysheadlines1/item/15685-20020913_... Superstitions are alive and well around the world. In the U.S., the number of people who still turn to astrology when it comes explaining success or failure in dating and relationships will astound you. Even in places like New York City.
  - tsotha 11y ago
    I'm sort of curious as to where these buildings are. I've never seen one on the US west coast.
ohsnap 11y ago
Not sure what world you live in but I have never heard students argue in favor of African Americans having heritable lower intelligence. Such a discussion would instantly be shamed and publicized. Pretty sure your making this up.
- InclinedPlane 11y ago
  It is an extremely common argument. A few years back a book called "The Bell Curve" came out which put forward that argument.
  - ohsnap 11y ago
    was in 1994. I wouldn't call it common. Though occasionally Andrew Sullivan would comment in this area. Regardless, I think the parent post was just exaggerating some hypothetical conversation in class to improve his/her argument. The probably of students arguing in class that some of their classmates are genetically inferior is highly unlikely. And if they did the probability of it not causing a massive twitter shit storm is close to 0.
    - nommm-nommm 11y ago
      Is 2014 more to your standards then? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Troublesome_Inheritance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Troublesome_Inheritance How about 2009? http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/201351582654349181.html http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/20135158265... It's not so blatant as much anymore and more implied nowadays but "scientific racism" is still alive and well today. Worse, any criticism of it is counted with "you're just denying the truth because it's not politically correct."
      - rewqfdsa 11y ago
        It's like trying to debug a SIGSEGV when you hold an unshakable religious belief that a certain pointer cannot be NULL. If your debugger tells you it's NULL, the debugger is biased, or at least is unconsciously exhibiting its page table privilege. If a colleague tells you that the pointer is NULL, he's a bigoted memoryist. You try to fix the SIGSEGV by renaming variables, refactoring functions, or changing data structures, but all you do is make the program slower and more complicated, and the damn thing still crashes. In the end, customers are unhappy, you can't ship, and you lose your job because you don't allow yourself to see what's blindingly obvious and in front of your nose. That's what the western world's identity politics fad feels like. The science tells us that there are important group differences. As long as we don't allow ourselves to see them and instead attack people who show them, we're not going to get anywhere.
hkmurakami 11y ago
At least domestically, it is more of an open secret than an actual secret. (By the way, the politically correct way to refer to the Buraku is "Douwa") This open secret history of persecution has been utilized by these communities to attain some more political and economic power. People who do not have a Douwa ancestry will sometimes move into these communities to be associated with the region and put themselves under the implied protection of the Douwa (since companies / government must tread very lightly around them). Interestingly, I recently learned that the school curriculum is starting to remove sections about the Douwa history. Once the "open secret" is less known, the caste will be able to wield less political power, and this change is obviously intentional.
brianwawok 11y ago
This is one of those sad human truths right? Put 1000 babies on an island and let them grow up free from influence. Somehow a group will find another group and marginalize them. Maybe skin color, maybe hair color, maybe height, maybe weight. Seems like humans do this in just about every culture, and although we try to "hide" it in political correctness - it still happens. Wonder if this is just some part of the bad side of the "humans need other humans to connect and bond" coin - "humans need enemies so they can bond together against, and if there is a lack of a real enemy they will somehow construct one". I mean go to a nice middle class soccer match. Some mom will be the outcast for her kid always being late to practice, or something...
- Sven7 11y ago
  It is sad but totally hackable. If we don't find aliens soon, someone needs to send up a secret satellite, that randomly broadcasts messages about the imminent arrival of the most evil aliens in the galaxy.
  - Terr_ 11y ago
    Basically the plot to Watchmen.
    - roghummal 11y ago
      The film ruined the ending.
      - sandGorgon 11y ago
        Actually I thought the film had the better ending. A giant fish like monster that could be sold as an alien invasion is less plausible than a radiation signature that matches Dr. Manhattan.
        roghummal 11y ago
        The way I see it, it comes down to external vs. internal threat. As campy as the terrible interdimensional creepy things are, they are a clear external threat to the people of Earth. Making Dr. Manhattan the fall guy internalizes the threat as he is-was "of us". With Dr. Manhattan as the patsy you get some superficial solidarity while every nation tries their hardest to recreate him--to obtain their own WMD+/God. With the terrible interdimensional creepy things humanity faces a clear external threat; Unite, people of Earth, for the Universe will fucking eat you. Maybe the monsters could've been done in a way that wouldn't have people laughing at their implausibility. Using Dr. Manhattan destroyed the message. The film's ending wasn't worth the sacrifice, IMHO.
rangibaby 11y ago
I worked at a place near some cheap municipal housing for Burakumin once, so met and became friends with some. They were nice people.
chops 11y ago
In the show House M.D, Dr. House explained his desire to become a doctor as based on an experience as a kid with the Japanese caste system: "When I was 14 my father was stationed in Japan. I went rock climbing with this kid from school. He fell, got injured and I had to bring him to the hospital. We came in through the wrong entrance and passed this guy in the hall. It was a janitor. My friend came down with an infection and the doctors didn't know what to do. So they brought in the janitor. He was a doctor. And a Buraku. One of Japan's untouchables. His ancestors had been slaughterers, grave diggers. And this guy, he knew that he wasn't accepted by the staff, he didn't even try. He didn't dress well. He didn't pretend to be one of them. The people that ran that place, they didn't think that he had anything they wanted. Except when they needed him. Because he was right. Which meant that nothing else mattered. And they had to listen to him." I always liked that little monologue.
- yourapostasy 11y ago
  Moving passage on when the chips are down, all that matters is what is right. Here's the audio. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xrZUx1OUjM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xrZUx1OUjM
unsignedint 11y ago
This is a bit controversial, as it is very arguable that some of those groups that's charted to eliminate discrimination against those groups exists for the sake of their existence. In many of those areas, there are so many inflow/outflow of population (perhaps a majority, especially younger demographics, not aware of even such notion existed in the area) from "buraku" areas really doesn't mean anything. So some argue what they are doing is reopening a closed issue. That's doesn't mean these discriminations do not exist, but there seems to be a lot of conflict of interest in the way the issue is handled.

140 points by rglovejoy 11y ago

Many churches and temples in Ogaki have a sign in the window saying "We will under NO CIRCUMSTANCES assist with third-party ancestry investigations (身元調査)." This is largely because parish records (and the analogous paperwork at temples) can leak burakumin status or Korean ancestry, both things which Japanese people have ample reason to not want publicized about them. A sidenote: I debated during college (in the US, prior to ever living in Japan, where I've been for about 10 years now). I was mildly notorious in debate circles for running a particular "case" (proposed instantiation of a government policy supporting the resolution which one would, as the government side of a debate, have to win was beneficial) on any resolution which would support it. For example, the resolution might be "The government shall limit the information it records about it's citizens." One team of the debate has to convince the judge that they have a concrete idea for how to do that. The other team opposes either that concrete idea and/or says "That case doesn't actually support the proposition our opponents are forced to support." The case was "abolish the koseki", a family register in Japan which was once considered semi-public information (this has been tightened up rather severely, but it still exists and companies often still ask to see yours) and which has a variety of ways to leak extraordinarily sensitive facts about one's family, in addition to being an odious institution for a host of other reasons. I say "notorious" for this case because, by American collegiate standards, the koseki is straight-out evil, and the reason we chose to run this case is because there are few ways to debate in favor of retaining it and all of them require you to be better versed at Japanese politics/policy than my debate partner and I were, which is unlikely to be true of any US debate team picked at random. I like to believe that my one lasting contribution to debate is convincing a lot of tournament directors to change the traditional wording in resolutions "The government shall $DO_SOMETHING" to "The United States federal government shall $DO_SOMETHING", because when we interpreted the government to mean "Japanese government" the other team invariably said something along the lines of "That's not what the resolution writer intended", to which I would say "You being ignorant of a major first world nation whose internal political issues are well-reflected in the academic literature may make this debate inconvenient for you to win but that does not mean I'm not allowed to pick something which fits within the clear definition of the word 'government.'" This drove people nuts. Ten years later I just had to get a copy of my family's koseki to apply for an apartment lease, upon which the renting agent said "Oh, you're American. Do you even know what this is?" Yep -- funny how life works out. (Why does my apartment renting agent need my koseki? To determine whether I'm the right sort of people to live in the really nice apartment we're moving to. Does "right sort of people" sound ominous to you? YEP, exactly as bad as you think it is.)

PeterWhittaker 11y ago
Would that I could upvote multiple times. Thanks for that.
ue_ 11y ago
>To determine whether I'm the right sort of people to live in the really nice apartment we're moving to. Does "right sort of people" sound ominous to you? Couldn't this possibly be unconstitutional? In Article 14 (I don't have my Japanese copy at hand): >All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin. That said, this only applies to citizens only, and you did mention the renting agent noticed you are an American. Horrible behaviour nevertheless.
- patio11 11y ago
  It's certainly illegal, much like gender discrimination in the workplace, requiring excessive work hours of salarymen, and racial profiling by police officers are illegal.
- e12e 11y ago
  I think it's a familiar pattern: first the attitude changes, then the law changes, and then the attitude continues to change. See: segregation, most of the rest of history.
mc32 11y ago
In practice, other than being burdensome for foreigners, does it have consequential effects on ordinary Japanese, in their view? I mean family registries are fascinating. In some places people are obliged to register people coming in and out of a household etc, like a living census. And for some jobs people have to provide family histories and professions, etc., but nevertheless the people I've spoken to aren't much bothered by as much as I seem to. For many, if not most or all, it just is. And, anthropologically it's fascinating.
- zyxley 11y ago

ue_ 11y ago

>evidence, perhaps, that old, discriminatory habits may yet be consigned to history. There's ample evidence with regard to foreigners in Japan already.

mahranch 11y ago
This gets repeated a lot (the whole "Japan is racist!" trope) but it's nonsense. Actual studies carried out proved Japan is not only the least racist country in Asia, it's equal to most European countries. They're actually less racist than France. South Korea and India on the other hand, are orders of magnitude worse. See the study yourself: Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15... The reason why the myth gets perpetuated is because young, white affluent males go over there for whatever reason (teach for a while, anime, exotic extended trips, etc) and don't get treated like little princes. So they go back home, hop on their favorite "gaijin forum" and claim they were discriminated against and that Japan is racist. That's why young hot Japanese girls weren't throwing themselves at them, or why people weren't bending over backwards for them.
- readymade 11y ago
  I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that "less racist than France" means "not racist". And even if you buy that silly study as an objective measure of the deeply complex topic of racism, it still marks Japan as less racially tolerant than the Anglo countries those who perpetuate that "myth" likely hail from.
  - mahranch 11y ago
    > And even if you buy that silly study I love how the study doesn't agree with your preconceptions so it must be "silly". The study was done by 2 Swedish researchers at a university, not by some online poll. It's backed up by academic rigor. That's about as hard science as it gets.
- cthalupa 11y ago

hyperion2010 11y ago

The burakumin are the best argument against genetic causes of heritable lower intelligence (often invoked when talking about African American populations). In Japan many burakumin show significantly lower scores on standardized intelligence tests, however when they migrate out of Japan their scores recover to normal levels. Social caste is heritable. This was a favorite zinger that my evolutionary biology teacher liked to spring on unsuspecting students that tried to argue that they could demonstrate that low iq among AAs was due to genetic differences.

336f5 11y ago
> This was a favorite zinger that my evolutionary biology teach liked to spring on unsuspecting students that tried to argue that they could demonstrate that low iq among AAs was due to genetic differences. And what happens when AAs migrate out of America, or when Africans migrate into America, hmm? The debate is not that simplistic and easily resolved, and your professor did you a disservice by pretending that it is and not discussing why his anecdote is not airtight (for example, immigrant samples are almost always contaminated by serious selection effects which are hard to measure and vary by group). By the way, how sure are you that your professor was even right in the first place (https://unsafeharbour.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/burakumin-and-koreans-in-japan/ https://unsafeharbour.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/burakumin-and...)?
RottenHuman 11y ago
They really are not a good argument against genetic causes of heritability of lower IQ scores in other groups. Their example (if true) only serves to proof that in their cases low IQ was cause by environment, which as partial cause for low IQ is not debated by anyone credible. It says nothing about genetic causes in other groups at all.
- hyperion2010 11y ago
  Fair enough. But I think it is a good reminder that the gut reaction to invoke genetics when confronted with a heritable phenotype should be met with suspicion, especially given the tendency to treat 'intrinsic' traits as excuses for continued poor treatment/disregard.

Foy 11y ago

There are some strange superstitions w.r.t. death in Japanese culture. In Japanese the number 4 sounds sort of like death so it's a number they avoid a lot (it's missing from many elevator options, similar to how 13 is skipped sometimes) and patterns of squares are sometimes avoided to prevent having 4 corners meet (especially with straw mats). I had never heard of this, though. The class of untouchables who work close to death. Really interesting stuff.

rangibaby 11y ago
4 and 9 are avoided. 9 is a homophone for "suffering".
shiro 11y ago
As other comments pointed, this caste system itself isn't really a "secret". We learn in school that it had existed, and there are quite a few stories dealing with it (A novel "The Broken Commandment" (破戒) by Touson Shimazaki, and an epic manga series "Kamui" (カムイ伝) are among the best ones; both have been translated to English). However, things got complicated in modern society; officially the government denies the discrimination exist; some people still keeps prejudice; and the topic is used as a political tool.
eevilspock 11y ago
> similar to how 13 is skipped sometimes Sometimes? "Based on records of buildings with Otis brand elevators, as many as 85 percent of the high rises in the world don't have a 13th floor, says Dilip Rangnekar, spokesman for the Farmington, CT-based elevator maker." - http://realtytimes.com/todaysheadlines1/item/15685-20020913_13thfloor http://realtytimes.com/todaysheadlines1/item/15685-20020913_... Superstitions are alive and well around the world. In the U.S., the number of people who still turn to astrology when it comes explaining success or failure in dating and relationships will astound you. Even in places like New York City.
- tsotha 11y ago
  I'm sort of curious as to where these buildings are. I've never seen one on the US west coast.

ohsnap 11y ago

Not sure what world you live in but I have never heard students argue in favor of African Americans having heritable lower intelligence. Such a discussion would instantly be shamed and publicized. Pretty sure your making this up.

InclinedPlane 11y ago
It is an extremely common argument. A few years back a book called "The Bell Curve" came out which put forward that argument.
- ohsnap 11y ago
  was in 1994. I wouldn't call it common. Though occasionally Andrew Sullivan would comment in this area. Regardless, I think the parent post was just exaggerating some hypothetical conversation in class to improve his/her argument. The probably of students arguing in class that some of their classmates are genetically inferior is highly unlikely. And if they did the probability of it not causing a massive twitter shit storm is close to 0.
  - nommm-nommm 11y ago
    Is 2014 more to your standards then? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Troublesome_Inheritance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Troublesome_Inheritance How about 2009? http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/201351582654349181.html http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/20135158265... It's not so blatant as much anymore and more implied nowadays but "scientific racism" is still alive and well today. Worse, any criticism of it is counted with "you're just denying the truth because it's not politically correct."
    - rewqfdsa 11y ago
      It's like trying to debug a SIGSEGV when you hold an unshakable religious belief that a certain pointer cannot be NULL. If your debugger tells you it's NULL, the debugger is biased, or at least is unconsciously exhibiting its page table privilege. If a colleague tells you that the pointer is NULL, he's a bigoted memoryist. You try to fix the SIGSEGV by renaming variables, refactoring functions, or changing data structures, but all you do is make the program slower and more complicated, and the damn thing still crashes. In the end, customers are unhappy, you can't ship, and you lose your job because you don't allow yourself to see what's blindingly obvious and in front of your nose. That's what the western world's identity politics fad feels like. The science tells us that there are important group differences. As long as we don't allow ourselves to see them and instead attack people who show them, we're not going to get anywhere.

hkmurakami 11y ago

At least domestically, it is more of an open secret than an actual secret. (By the way, the politically correct way to refer to the Buraku is "Douwa") This open secret history of persecution has been utilized by these communities to attain some more political and economic power. People who do not have a Douwa ancestry will sometimes move into these communities to be associated with the region and put themselves under the implied protection of the Douwa (since companies / government must tread very lightly around them). Interestingly, I recently learned that the school curriculum is starting to remove sections about the Douwa history. Once the "open secret" is less known, the caste will be able to wield less political power, and this change is obviously intentional.

brianwawok 11y ago

This is one of those sad human truths right? Put 1000 babies on an island and let them grow up free from influence. Somehow a group will find another group and marginalize them. Maybe skin color, maybe hair color, maybe height, maybe weight. Seems like humans do this in just about every culture, and although we try to "hide" it in political correctness - it still happens. Wonder if this is just some part of the bad side of the "humans need other humans to connect and bond" coin - "humans need enemies so they can bond together against, and if there is a lack of a real enemy they will somehow construct one". I mean go to a nice middle class soccer match. Some mom will be the outcast for her kid always being late to practice, or something...

Sven7 11y ago
It is sad but totally hackable. If we don't find aliens soon, someone needs to send up a secret satellite, that randomly broadcasts messages about the imminent arrival of the most evil aliens in the galaxy.
- Terr_ 11y ago
  Basically the plot to Watchmen.
  - roghummal 11y ago
    The film ruined the ending.
    - sandGorgon 11y ago
      Actually I thought the film had the better ending. A giant fish like monster that could be sold as an alien invasion is less plausible than a radiation signature that matches Dr. Manhattan.
      - roghummal 11y ago
        The way I see it, it comes down to external vs. internal threat. As campy as the terrible interdimensional creepy things are, they are a clear external threat to the people of Earth. Making Dr. Manhattan the fall guy internalizes the threat as he is-was "of us". With Dr. Manhattan as the patsy you get some superficial solidarity while every nation tries their hardest to recreate him--to obtain their own WMD+/God. With the terrible interdimensional creepy things humanity faces a clear external threat; Unite, people of Earth, for the Universe will fucking eat you. Maybe the monsters could've been done in a way that wouldn't have people laughing at their implausibility. Using Dr. Manhattan destroyed the message. The film's ending wasn't worth the sacrifice, IMHO.

rangibaby 11y ago

I worked at a place near some cheap municipal housing for Burakumin once, so met and became friends with some. They were nice people.

chops 11y ago

In the show House M.D, Dr. House explained his desire to become a doctor as based on an experience as a kid with the Japanese caste system: "When I was 14 my father was stationed in Japan. I went rock climbing with this kid from school. He fell, got injured and I had to bring him to the hospital. We came in through the wrong entrance and passed this guy in the hall. It was a janitor. My friend came down with an infection and the doctors didn't know what to do. So they brought in the janitor. He was a doctor. And a Buraku. One of Japan's untouchables. His ancestors had been slaughterers, grave diggers. And this guy, he knew that he wasn't accepted by the staff, he didn't even try. He didn't dress well. He didn't pretend to be one of them. The people that ran that place, they didn't think that he had anything they wanted. Except when they needed him. Because he was right. Which meant that nothing else mattered. And they had to listen to him." I always liked that little monologue.

yourapostasy 11y ago
Moving passage on when the chips are down, all that matters is what is right. Here's the audio. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xrZUx1OUjM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xrZUx1OUjM

unsignedint 11y ago

This is a bit controversial, as it is very arguable that some of those groups that's charted to eliminate discrimination against those groups exists for the sake of their existence. In many of those areas, there are so many inflow/outflow of population (perhaps a majority, especially younger demographics, not aware of even such notion existed in the area) from "buraku" areas really doesn't mean anything. So some argue what they are doing is reopening a closed issue. That's doesn't mean these discriminations do not exist, but there seems to be a lot of conflict of interest in the way the issue is handled.