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Buraku Problem Basic
Variety of information that gives you a whole picture of Buraku problem
Basic terminologies
- Buraku Issues
- Historical Origin
- Buraku Liberation Movement
- Buraku Liberation Education
- Dowa District
- Employment Discrimination
- Marriage Discrimination
- Buraku Dispersion Theory
- Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
Discriminatory incidents
(under construction)Buraku-related Statistics
(under construction)
Buraku Problem Basic
“Let Sleeping Dogs Lie”
Why wake the dog and disturb it when it is lying so quietly? This saying expresses the idea that a reverse effect is frequently caused when you do something unnecessary. In terms of Buraku issues, it is a metaphorical expression, referring to the idea that “discrimination will go away naturally if you simply leave the issue alone and do not force the problem on people who did not know it existed in the first place.” It is not completely certain when this metaphor was first established, but of all the theories, the ones that argue for either the first decade of the 20th century or the 1920’s are the most convincing. The former falls alongside the formation of the first Buraku public organization, the “Bisaku Common People’s Association” (1902), and is symbolized in Shimazaki Toson’s novel “Broken Commandment,” published 1906. The latter coincides with the founding year of the Suiheisha (Leveller’s Association) in 1922. With the popularization of Buraku issues as a wider social issue and Buraku people’s new awareness of their social standing as background, this metaphor came to encapsulate the government’s assimilationist policies to Buraku issues, which were designed to keep people ignorant. This metaphor was used by both Buraku people and the general populace, and both should be critiqued as ineffective solutions to the issue; however, the “sleeping dog” that is well familiar with the cruelty of discrimination and the “sleeping dog” that tacitly permits discrimination should be distinguished. This approach of “let sleeping dogs lie” today is of a kind with the “Buraku Dispersion Theory” and the “Buraku Disintegration Theory,” and plays a role of reactionary ideology, doing nothing to eliminate discrimination.
(Yagi Kosuke)