Buraku Liberation News, July 1997 issue (N0.97)
6.Buraku Problem Q & A
Distribution of Buraku Areas throught Japan
Q: Please tell me about the distribution of Buraku areas and its residents by prefecture.
A: The distribution of Dowa areas (Buraku areas) vary by prefecture( Please see the chart). In terms of the number of areas, Fukuoka Prefecture has the largest number, 606 areas, followed by Hiroshima ; 472 areas, and by Ehime ; 457 areas, according to the latest survey in 1993 conducted by the Management and Coordination Agency. On the other hand, there are less than ten areas in Nagasaki, Yamanashi, Fukui, and Aichi Prefectures.
The total number of residents in Dowa areas throughout Japan is 2,158,751. By prefecture, Fukuoka constitutes the largest population of 305,000, followed by Nagano's 214,000 and by Hyogo's 206,000. There are only 2,000 residents in Dowa areas in Nagasaki, the smallest among prefectures which have Dowa areas, and 3,000 residents in Fukui.
Similar to the statistics of population of Dowa areas residents, we have the statistics of Dowa-related residents. While Dowa areas residents refers to all the people who live in Dowa areas (including people of non-Buraku origin who happen to transfer to Buraku areas from non-Buraku areas), Dowa-related residents are defined as people living in Dowa areas and situated in poor conditions economically, socially and culturally and whose socio-economic positions are considered to be unjustly hampered by discrimination based on the social class system institutionalized in the historical process of the development of Japanese society.
In the government survey, Dowa-related residents are distinguished by household. If there is even a single Dowa-related resident in a certain household, it is defined as Dowa-related household. Then all the members of a Dowa-related household are counted as Dowa-related population.
The total Dowa-related population is 892,751. That accounts for 41% of the total residents of Dowa areas. By prefecture, Hyogo has the biggest Dowa-related population of 117,000, followed by Fukuoka's 112,000 and by Osaka's 87,000. Nagasaki has only 292 population Dowa-related residents. (Please refer to the May 1997 issue of the Buraku Liberation News )
DIstribution of dowa(Buraku) Areas