CURRENT SITUATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST BURAKUMlN
We will first examine the present situation of discrimination against the Buraku before discussing how education about Buraku issues is carried out. The nature of current Buraku discrimination can be revealed not only by findings from various surveys of discriminatory consciousness, but also through typical incidents of discrimination.
For instance, the secret publication and circulation of "Buraku Lists" were unveiled in 1975. The Buraku Lists carried information on the location, size and occupations of Buraku communities in Japan. One can easily find out who is from the Buraku by comparing his/her address with an indicated location of Buraku on the lists. Overall, nine such kinds of lists are known to have been marketed and more than 200 corporations, including some world-famous Japanese giant corporations, purchased them. They did so in order to avoid hiring people from the Buraku. Actually, a number of Buraku applicants had been rejected by companies in the recruitment process. The widespread use of such lists in recent years symbolizes how prevalent discriminatory consciousness still is against the Buraku. The total picture of the publication of these lists, however, is not clear yet. Japan has not acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the publishers of the Buraku lists have not received any legal punishment even for such an apparent act of discrimination.
Also, marriage-related discrimination still causes suicide and other problems among young Burakumin. The Japanese Constitution provides that marriage is to be based solely on the consent of the marrying couple. However, marriage has beer regarded symbolically in Japan as a ritual of formerly relating one family to another.
Young Burakumin falling in love with non-Burakumin may decide to marry, but they often cannot because the latter's parents and/or relatives express opposition to their marriage on the grounds that the would-be spouse is from Buraku. Some such non-Burakumin suddenly change their attitude in the face of strong rejection from their parents and/or relatives. And among Burakumin who have been refused in this way, some get totally depressed and even attempt to kill themselves. Given the nature of this issue, the victims would not want to openly talk about their experience and we cannot provide any statistical figures of such cases of suicide. However, educators who have been active in Dowa education know that there are quite a few such cases.
Results of various surveys of the awareness of local residents also indicate discriminatory views against the Buraku. For instance, a survey conducted by the national government in 1993 revealed the following results: To the question targeted at unmarried persons "What would you do if you decide to marry someone from the Buraku but face strong opposition from your parents and relatives?", only 17% of the respondents said "I will follow my will and marry." To the question targeted at married persons "What would you do if your child is getting married to someone from the Buraku?", only 43.4% said "I will respect the will of our child. Parents should not intervene in such a matter." Be aware that these are the results of questionnaire surveys. We assume that the actual situation is worse.
Various surveys have also shown that some non-Buraku people have such images of Burakumin as "hard working " "kind,"" and "honest " but negative images of them such as "vulgar," "rude, " "undeveloped," "closed" "gloomy," and "horrible" seem to be held more strongly. Also, we notice strong objections to special government measures provided for Buraku communities.
PRACTICES OF EDUCATION ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS
Outline of Practices of Education about Buraku Issues
This section will describe Dowa education from the perspective of education about human rights. Education about Buraku issues today is provided not only in formal education from elementary school to college but also through non-formal educational activities in the community and the workplace. Schools have started to teach Buraku issues widely since the Dowa Policy Council's Recommendation of 1965 stated the need for Dowa education.
Dowa education should be carried out also in such early childhood educational institutions as day-care centers (supervised by the Ministry of Health and Welfare) and nursery schools (supervised by the Ministry of Education). Because the ratio of employed women is very high in Buraku communities, the opening of day-care centers for all children in the community has been a goal. However, to our regret, conscious efforts to promote Dowa education are hardly seen in day-care centers and nursery schools outside Buraku communities.
Education about Buraku issues has grown rather widely in western Japan in elementary and secondary education. As a result, most children learn about Buraku issues in school. The quality of Dowa education they receive may not be quite satisfactory, but it is significant that they receive bias-free information in the school before they are deeply affected by prejudiced views of Buraku in their home and community.
The ratio of higher education institutions offering Dowa education is still limited compared to elementary and secondary education. Of the 1,100 higher education institutions in Japan, 305 or only 27.7% provide courses on Dowa education according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education. What is even worse is that these courses are rarely taught by full-time instructors and are mostly assigned to part-time teachers. There are only a few higher education institutions engaged in research on Buraku issues. Such a lack of effort in higher education hampers the progress of education and research on Buraku issues.
It was not until the early 1970s that classes were opened to teach about Buraku issues in community adult education facilities. About the same time, TV dramas and documentary programs on Buraku issues began to be aired. In some areas, these programs are broadcast several times a year. And many of them have been produced on the local government's budget.
Education and training sessions on human rights and Buraku issues started in the workplace slightly after this. In particular, the purchase of the notorious Buraku lists by a number of corporations led to the opening of these sessions in the late 1970s. The government also gave guidance to business corporations to provide wider in-house training opportunities on human rights issues. Today some companies give human rights education to their employees on their own initiative.
The Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute also provides its own programs on human rights education. One such program is called "Kaiho Daigaku" or the Buraku Liberation College. It offers two-to-six months of training programs dealing with international standards on human rights and discrimination issues in Japan and abroad as well as with such themes as social movements, education, public administration and corporate management. It is intended to train leaders on Buraku issues in various fields. Methods of teaching include lectures, field-work and group activities. As of 1994, 40 terms of programs had been offered to a total of 1,865 participants since the beginning of the program. In addition, the BLHRRI provides a number of shorter courses and workshops.
As indicated in the above descriptions, education about Buraku issues is widely offered today and not just limited within schools. In the following, however, central focus will be placed on Buraku studies in elementary and junior high schools.
Concept of "Don't wake up a sleeping baby" as an Obstacle
It is impossible to distinguish Burakumin by appearance because Buraku discrimination is a caste-like discrimination that has evolved within the same ethnic group. As a result there is widespread support to the view that "Buraku discrimination will go away only if we don't make a fuss about it." We call this view "Neta Ko wo Okosuna"" or "Don't-wake-up-a-sleeping-baby." This view negates the need to teach about Buraku issues. It is important, therefore, to point out the problems inherent in this view.
As indicated by a number of recent surveys, discrimination still persists. There are many Burakumin who would not want to face discrimination again. If you say to them "Just keep quiet, and discrimination will go away" you are almost telling them to be silent even in the face of apparent discrimination. We should respect the rights of victims of Buraku and other forms of discrimination to raise their voices and appeal to society rather than undermine such an initiative.
In Japan institutional support of Buraku discrimination still exists. There is the Family Register Law, which has supported a family-oriented ideology. The family register is a system by which the government controls the citizens by the family as a unit. Local governments keep family registers that show the past record of the families. The family register contains information that allows one to trace the family tree down several generations. This institutional framework has sustained discrimination against Buraku. Some people abuse this system to find out who is from the Buraku. Most other countries in the world do not have a family register system, and have no serious problems in conducting public administration for that.
Dowa education has advanced by denouncing discriminatory incidents. Up until the 1970s, a significant number of non-Buraku parents living in the neighborhood of the Buraku had customarily sent their children to schools away from their neighborhood even though the law provided that they should send their children to the neighborhood school. It was called "Ekkyo" or literally "going beyond the border." That was because the neighborhood school enrolled Buraku children while the distant schools they chose were rather prestigious and without Buraku or other minority children. This practice, therefore, was a reflection of strong prejudice among non-Buraku parents. At the same time, schools with Buraku children tended to show poorer educational conditions because the local governments did not fairly budget for these schools.
"Ekkyo" became a hot political Issue m 1968 in Osaka, and local governments in the Osaka area declared that it was a discriminatory practice. As a result, children who had been to non-neighborhood schools came back. There was an urgent need to educate these and other children properly on Buraku issues, because otherwise they could become even more strongly prejudiced against Buraku. To aid such an awareness-raising process, it was decided to compile a supplementary textbook on human rights issues titled "Ningen" or "Human Being" and provide copies of it free of charge to all school children in Osaka In this way, dealing with concrete cases of discrimination in education has led to various improvements in the education field
Group process
Even if you teach about actual cases of Buraku discrimination, it is not enough of a stimulus for the students to reflect seriously on what they learn or relate themselves to it. In the final analysis, if the learners do not have the sensitivity to grasp the nature of the issue, the knowledge and interpretation the teacher provides cannot really empower them. Therefore, much weight is placed on the group process to lay the foundation of education about Buraku issues.
There are a number of key principles to observe in dealing with the group process in Dowa education. First is to situate the group process by taking into consideration the life of children outside the school. Children are agents of their lives, and bring their lives at home and in the community to school. They show only some aspect of what they are in the school. Those children who tend to cause problems in the school may have trouble at home. It should be easier for the teacher to work on such children if he or she knows more about their lives at home and in the community. Similarly, if children know about each other's lives, their relationship can be developed in a mutually supportive manner.
Second is to advance the group process by placing "Teihen no ko" or "Children at the bottom" in the center. In Dowa education "Teihen no ko" refers to children who belong to a discriminated-against group and children who have serious problems in their lives, relations with friends, academic performance, etc. These children, who are placed in vulnerable positions, tend to suffer from a disproportionate weight of various contradictions in society. They may show poor academic performance because they do not have adequate support conditions both mentally and physically. They may get disorganized since they see no meaning in their lives. Or they may feel intimidated in the school environment. The thesis of placing "Teihen no ko" in the center of the group process encourages each child in the class to recognize the problems of the "bottom" children as their own and motivates them to grow together with the "bottom" children.
Dowa education has developed a number of methods to advance such a group process. Many of them were originally created in educational movements in Japan, and further improved in Dowa education.
One method is the use of "Seikatsu Noto" or "diary notebook." Children are asked to write about their daily lives and their observations in the notebook and bring it to school. The teacher writes down his/her responses in these diary notebooks. As teachers return caring and thoughtful comments back to the children, children who first only wrote about rather superficial observations begin to focus on their deeper concerns and real life problems in the writing in the notebook.
Another method is the use of "Han" or small groups, and a regular meeting of group leaders. About 5 to 8 small groups are formed typically in a class of 30 to 40 students. Members of the small group participate in various activities together, compare notes, and support and encourage each other. It is vital in this process to consider how vulnerable children or "bottom" children can be supported in the small group.
Meetings of small group leaders take place every week or two after school for conducting small group-based classroom management. Homeroom teachers discuss with them what has happened during the week and develop plans for forthcoming events.
"Tsuzurikata" or Writing about Life
"Tsuzurikata" or writing about life has been considered as a vital component of Dowa education. "Tsuzurikata" has been traditionally a major approach to teaching writing in Japan. Children, who are agents of their lives, are invited to write about their life as it is.
The key to successful "Tsuzurikata" or writing about life is elaborated in the following steps. The teacher should instruct the student to choose some unusual event or experience, to determine the period (from when to when) to cover in the writing, to describe what happened or what was experienced by recalling the details. If you just write "I was very happy," It doesn't really communicate your feelings to the reader. The reader can reexperience and share your feelings if you skillfully represent in writing the event or your experience just as you experienced it.
Why is "Tsuzurikata" or writing about life so important in Dowa education? Prejudice causes bias in one's perception of even those who actually do their best to survive. Some Buraku children feel "why was I born to these parents?" without being able to accept them and their love. "Tsuzurikata" trains the writer to look at his or her life objectively and critically, and enables him or her to surmount prejudiced views.
"Tsuzurikata" may also enable the writer to reflect on his or her behavior critically and understand why he or she was carried away by emotions. As this process is repeated, the writer becomes able to control his or her behavior more rationally. The following episode exemplifies the changing process: One boy was frequently involved in fighting with his classmates and was driven by his emotions. He felt sorry about the fighting usually one week after it occurred. As he started "Tsuzurikata" and writing about his life, he began to feel sorry for the fighting three days afterward, and then on the following day. Finally, he was able to control his behavior before he got into fighting.
Content of Buraku Studies
It was in the early 1970s that Buraku studies began rather widely in schools. No mention of Buraku issues had been made in school textbooks before 1972. Today, most social studies textbooks refer to Buraku issues. However, even these textbooks are not problem-free. They may just describe historical events one after another without really providing critical interpretations into their background and context. Or they may only illustrate the poverty and misery that Buraku ancestors have come through. Or they may not situate Buraku history in the overall context of Japanese history. Partly as a result of this situation, most students who study about Buraku issues in the school get a dark and negative image of the Buraku. The tendency of Buraku studies to heavily use extreme cases of discrimination in marriage and employment as teaching materials have also shaped such perceptions.
However, Buraku people have not just been overwhelmed by discrimination. They have advanced the liberation movement by supporting each other and have surmounted a series of difficulties that stood before them. We may even say that strength and generosity prevail in the life of Buraku. A major way for non-Buraku people to study Buraku issues has been to learn from the real life experiences of Burakumin. Buraku people may say "I just hated my parents when I was small, but l began to love them as I joined the liberation movement myself and came to understand how my parents lived through daunting difficulties to bring me up." Or "It was just hard to keep my background secret, being always suspicious of other people's perception of me. It is not easy to be active in the movement, but it is much better than hiding my identity." Or "Now that I can openly identify myself, I enjoy meeting with really nice people. This is great." All these comments are possible because they were able to solve their personal anxieties through social action. The liberation movement provided them with a key to think in terms of social structure and inter-group relations rather than in terms of personal failures. Non-Burakumin who meet such prideful Burakumin realize how deplorable it is for them to be under the yoke of prejudice and how that limits their human capacities.
In addition, the following points are considered as major criteria to judge whether or not the materials and teaching are good.
- Not just the origin and history of Buraku, but also current issues are presented.
- Not just the general and abstract discussions of Buraku issues, but also concrete cases of discrimination and Buraku life are illustrated in the materials.
- Not just discriminatory incidents, but movements to cope with them are also presented.
- Teachers visit Buraku homes and work collaboratively to promote Buraku studies in the school.
- Focus is clear as to how the concerns of students are related to learning materials.
- Teachers speak about their own views of Buraku issues. They should not position themselves away from the context of Buraku discrimination as though they are totally free from prejudice. They should rather demonstrate that they are also studying with the students.
Supplementary Dowa Textbooks
Supplementary Dowa textbooks substantially help teachers to organize classes to study about Buraku and other human rights issues. The Ministry of Education has not produced any textbook on Dowa education, but many local governments have compiled and published textbooks on human rights and Dowa education. There are more than thirty kinds of such textbooks available in Japan, each provided in separate copies for different grades: from grade one to junior high level. Usually, students receive the supplementary textbook on Buraku issues free of charge along with other textbooks in the beginning of each new school year in April.
We shall describe the case of "Ningen" meaning literally "human being," one such supplementary textbook in Osaka. "Ningen" has been provided to all elementary and junior high students in Osaka since 1970 when "Ekkyo" or not going to the neighborhood school, became a hot issue. The free supply of "Ningen" was intended to promote human rights education, particularly Buraku studies, in all schools to eliminate Buraku discrimination. The Liberation Education Research Institute has edited the book and was helped by many school teachers and Buraku leaders. Dowa educators' associations in Osaka also play an important supportive role. In other words, "Ningen" is produced by NGOs and members of civic organizations, and copies of it are supplied to all students free of charge by receiving financial support from the local governments in Osaka.
Contents of the supplementary textbooks differ from one to another. But they are not generally limited to Buraku issues and typically cover an array of human rights-related issues. "Ningen" in Osaka, for instance, includes materials on discrimination against Buraku, resident Koreans, women, disabled people and indigenous populations, as well as on such themes as life, work, friendship, peace and international understanding.
They are designed also to meet the needs of students at different grade levels. Those for lower elementary grades look like colored picture-books and contain easy-to-read stories. Those for upper elementary grades have a number of concise stories dealing with issues close to their daily lives and presented in such a style as to stimulate classroom discussion. And those for junior high students have a comprehensive coverage of the history of Buraku issues. We may say that the official supply of these series of supplementary textbooks for different grade levels constitutes one unique feature of Japanese Dowa education.
Methods of Teaching Human Rights and Buraku Issues
In some areas where Dowa education is actively promoted, a comprehensive curriculum for teaching about human rights and Buraku issues is designed for grade 1 through the third grade of junior high (corresponding to grade 9). A typical structure looks as follows:
Grade 1-2 People who work for the school; people who collect garbage
Grade 3-4 Buraku in the school neighborhood
Grade 5-6 History of Buraku discrimination; human rights; politics
Grade 7 Fieldwork in Buraku in the school neighborhood
Grade 8 Work and occupations of parents
Grade 9 Future life and career choice
In conventional approaches to Buraku studies, a major approach has been to listen to and learn from Buraku people. This approach, combined with the group process in the classroom, has stimulated non-Buraku students to deal with their personal problems in relation to Buraku issues.
Some argue, however, whether this approach is enough. Some schools have tried to translate what the students learned from Buraku people into a drama script and motivated them to express their thinking and feelings through their drama performance. In regard to the methods of human rights education in the world, participatory and vicarious approaches have been widely utilized on the belief that passive learning alone does not bring about a meaningful change on the part of learners. As a result, role-playing, debate forum, simulation and other methods attract much attention these days because these methods encourage "learning to change" by doing.
Pursuit of Global Dowa Education
Buraku discrimination is not the only discrimination in Japan. There are other forms of discrimination such as against women, resident Koreans, disabled people, etc. We cannot assume that Buraku discrimination will go away while other discrimination persists.
As we look back upon the history of Dowa education, we notice that educational initiatives for Korean children and disabled children developed by learning significant lessons from Dowa education. At the same time, Dowa education has learned much from these other human rights education initiatives. Today Dowa education is expected to learn also from the experiences of anti-discrimination education and human rights education around the world
Globalization is the major trend of today both politically and economically. Global perspectives are strongly needed when we deal with Buraku issues and Dowa education. Japan invaded Asian countries during the Second World War. Recently Japanese economic expansion has adversely affected Asia by destroying the natural environment and people's life styles. In a global context, Japan appears more as a victimizer. We (including Buraku children) cannot but recognize our position as victimizers in our relationship to Asia. Future Dowa education has to be constructed on this assumption.
To learn about issues facing Asian countries does not just imply that we have to recognize our victimizing position. Buraku children can also take pride in what their ancestors did to advance the cause of Buraku liberation, because major strategies developed decades ago in the Buraku liberation movement such as the literacy movement and the demand for housing. Denunciation of discrimination is now growing or expected to grow in Asian countries. By situating Buraku issues in the contexts of Asia and the world, we can rediscover the significance of the Buraku liberation movement and the Dowa education movement.
Let us propose that the following issues be explored further in discussing Buraku Issues in a global context.
One is to locate Buraku discrimination against the background of the entire history of Asia. Buraku discrimination is often compared to caste discrimination in India. It has been pointed out that some Buddhist sutra brought to Japan had teachings that harbored discriminatory ideas of caste discrimination. There have been people in Korea called Paekjong. Buraku levelers and the Paekjong liberation movement developed a strong solidarity. Many Paekjong people were engaged in leather processing business and were also victims of status discrimination. What is the nature of discrimination against Paekjong? What has caused the declining discrimination against them, if at all? We have to relate the history of Paekjong to that of Burakumin.
Secondly, we have to advance Japan's globalization from within. Nowadays many migrant workers and their families from abroad live in various places around Japan, some in neighboring Buraku communities. We can discover a different dimension of Japanese society as we look at it through their eyes.
Thirdly, we have to develop a network of friendship and collaboration with schools and regions in Asia and other parts of the world in pursuit of the common theme of human rights. As long as we think of Asia and the world in abstract terms, we cannot feel close to them. Just as Buraku studies have emphasized the importance of learning from concrete experiences and particular individuals in the community, we have to develop personal ties with Asia and other regions.