In this section, we will outline the origin and development of the modern Japanese education system in describing the situation of the Burakumin's access to schooling and the changes in their educational attainment levels preceding the Second World War.
PROCESS OF ESTABLISHlNG THE MODERN JAPANESE SCHOOL SYSTEM
According to research by R.P. Dore, in the late Edo era (1603-1868), the estimated percentages of men and women enjoying such educational benefits as reading, writing and calculating were 43% and 10%, respectively. The education of the time was provided at HANKO (educational facility reserved for children of Bushi or warrior status people) or TERAKOYA (private educational facility open to the public). However, the SENMIN (outcaste people) were not allowed to develop literacy skills and even received legal punishment for learning alphabets, with the exception of some privileged. Replacing the feudalistic rule by Shogun, the new Meiji government, announcing a policy to ensure educational opportunity for the people, established a schooling system in 1872, using the European school system as a model. The initial plan consisted of both eight years of compulsory elementary education from age 6 to age 13, and the following five years of secondary school education as a preparatory stage for entering university. Nevertheless, the enrollment rate in effect stagnated at a level similar to the former Edo era, since the government was incapable of providing tuition-free schooling due to lack of facilities and teaching staff. As a result, the government was obliged to modify the duration of compulsory education from 8 years to 4 years starting from age six. Furthermore, it approved the establishment of the three-year KAN'I (simplified elementary school to ensure at least the minimum of educational opportunity). These changes were intended to adapt to the actuality of the general public's life styles.
As post-secondary education institutions, the following types of schools were founded: 1) junior high schools to prepare students to enter Teikoku University (now Tokyo University), the only existing university of the time, 2)SHIHAN GAKKO, where future teachers were trained, 3) business schools/professional schools for vocational education and 4) KOTO elementary schools that was supplementary to primary education. School admission, to assure fairness, was determined by an entrance examination that complied with the curriculum standardized by the government. Some students were preferentially enrolled in the post secondary education institutions as a respite from military service or for working as governmental officials. Such a selection system, as well as a privileged promotion to an official, accelerated the formation of employment-policy based on the educational achievement by private enterprises. At the same time, it encouraged the notion of educational achievement to be recognized in the early stage of Japan's modernization, as a mainstream channel of upward social mobility. Moreover, it helped achievement-orientation to be widely popularized among the public.
The educational policy by the government proved successful, which promoted the simplification of compulsory education and a thorough distribution of job status by means of educational achievement. It led to above 80% enrollment rate in primary schools in 1895, followed by 90% in 1902 and 97% in 1907. Since the establishment of the modern school system, it took only 30 years or so to record an even higher enrollment rate compared to that of France and Germany, which were considered models in the educational modernization project. Affected by such a favorable increase in enrollment, the duration of compulsory education was extended to 6 years in 1907. Also, forced by the people's heightened zeal for higher education, a new law was enacted in 1918 to establish SENMON GAKKO (professional school) in the university category, and to provide wider higher education opportunities that had been limited to Teikoku University. At this point, the modern Japanese school system had been almost fully established encompassing the entire range from elementary to higher education.
EDUCATIONAL SEGREGATI ON IMPOSED ON BURAKU PEOPLE
As is mentioned above, the establishment of the modern Japanese school system rapidly progressed with the intensive measures by the government that wished to transform Japan radically in European society's style, and to make it eventually an incomparable educational superpower. Statistics shows that the elementary educational opportunities were almost fully ensured and the school system played an important role in the society as a medium to distribute socio-economic status. In parallel, opportunities for upward social mobility were remarkably widened.
However, Buraku people faced various obstacles when trying to maximize their access to schooling and opportunities for upward social mobility.
Up until 1885, the government had left the establishment of schools and the provision of teachers to each community's responsibility by using their own resources. As for elementary schools, they were financially dependent on both tuition collected from the parents and funding from the community. Such a policy made it difficult for poor communities to have schools. Research indicates that some Buraku communities remained as non-school enrollment areas until the early 20th century because school construction was beyond their financial capacity.
From 1885 on, the government gradually shifted its policy to providing financial support to set up schools. However, total financial support for the construction of school facilities in each and every community was still impossible. Therefore, they adopted the system to recruit students from several neighboring communities to an already existing school facility. For that purpose, an area partition of school districts was carried out. In this process, non Burakumin expressed strong opposition to letting their children be in the same school as Burakumin. Under such circumstances, sacrificing geographical accessibility, administrative authorities often took measures to specify two different categories of schools; one for Burakumin children and another for non-Burakumin children. Very often schools adopted segregation by class or by seat. Consequently, such a policy by the authorities hurt the pride of Burakumin who had come to be aware of equal rights since the status system had been abolished. This resulted in protests by the Burakumin against such segregation, which took place in various regions. The protest campaign against school segregation was recorded in Nara Prefecture already in 1890. At the same time, government records show that the major activities of the Leveler's Association (the first Buraku liberation organization in the modern age) in the early days were targeted at the segregation and discrimination in elementary schools.
Education provided in urban cities differed from that in rural areas. Along with an improvement in industrial productivity, the population gradually concentrated in urban areas, a common phenomenon internationally. Burakumin were no exception. Buraku communities in urban areas continuously expanded, showing slum-like characteristics, receiving not only Buraku people but also marginal laborers from rural areas. In those urban Buraku communities the economic levels were often worse and non-enrollment rates were higher compared to the country sides. The government established KAN'I SHOGAKKO (simplified primary schools), YAGAKKO (evening schools) and KlNROSHA GAKKO (worker's schools) in such communities in order to rectify non-enrollment situation. However, those school facilities and equipment were less than satisfactory and the content of education was quite poor, which naturally brought few possible educational effects. Despite the active construction of schools, the non-enrollment situation in Buraku communities did not notably improve.
The government, advocating better school enrollment, advanced YUWA EDUCATICN (the principle of equality under the emperor), hastened by the activated SUIHEISHA's (Levelers') protest. Again, the government's effort couldn't significantly ameliorate segregation nor discrimination in schools because of deep-rooted intolerance and prejudice against the Buraku people by non-Buraku inhabitants and educators concerned. It's not hard to imagine how such a situation of segregation and discrimination discouraged the Burakumin's motivation to attend school and the will to learn. A distrust of school, deep-rooted in the Buraku people's mind in this way, hardly be removed even now.
HIGH NON-ENROLLMENT RATE OF BURAKU PEOPLE
Buraku people's economy had been assured during the Edo era because industries such as leather tanning were specified as their vocation under the status system. With the dissolution of the status system, those industries were liberalized and made open to non-Buraku capital. This change plunged the Burakumin into destitution, which often compelled their children to help earning their family's living as a part of the labor force. The feeling of distrust of school as well as the economic difficulty aggravated the non-enrollment situation of Buraku children. Figure 1 shows the constitution of school careers of over 13 year-old Buraku population, according to research on Burakumin conducted by Osaka Prefecture in 1918. In those days, compared to the whole population's accumulated non-enrollment rate of 35%, the Burakumin's rate of 57% makes a significant contrast. Also, in the comparison of secondary and higher education, which stands at 12% and 2% respectively for the whole population, Burakumin are quite underrepresented
At the time when Japanese society was heading toward achievement-orientation based on educational achievement, Buraku people's education was left at a low level, which means that their social status remained "outcaste" even in modern Japanese society, with no substantive change since the Edo era.
A notably high non-enrollment rate and long term absence rate was seen even after the Second World War. Statistics of long term absence rates of Junior high school students in Nara Prefecture (Figure 1), shows that Burakumin's lack of basic education had persisted for a long time, even in the post-War period
Figure 1 Long Term Absence (absent 90 days or over for an year) Rates of Junior High School Students in Nara Prefecture
CHARACTERISTICS OF JAPANESE SCHOOL EDUCATION
In regard to equal educational opportunities, the Japanese educational system preceding the Second World War did not necessarily making light of it. Japanese school education before and after the Second World War characteristically showed a high performance of distributing job status according to school achievement, supported by: 1) a standardized curriculum by the government, 2) a distinct selection system by examination, 3) professional status tied strongly with educational achievements, and so on. We can add also that by means of drastic implementation of the policy of equal educational opportunities following an American model the government labored for equally opened social mobility opportunities after Second World War. Alas, those efforts had less effect in changing the Burakumin's outcaste status. Furthermore, it resulted in the formation of another layer of stratification added onto the traditional hierarchy, due to the disproportionate non-enrollment of Burakumin. In Japanese society, where educational achievement is tightly linked to the acquisition of social status, social stratification can often be caused by the gaps in educational achievement. The principle of achievement-orientation built mainly on the notion of equal educational opportunity does not automatically liberate such an ascribed group as Burakumin.