Buraku Liberation News, September 1997 issue (N0.98)
4. The Osaka Federation Held a Denunciation Session for a Detective Agency that Reported about a Buraku Area.
The Osaka Prefectural Federation of the BLL held on August 19 the first denunciation session for Jindai Corporation, a detective agency, that made a discriminatory investigation. In November 1996, a retailer based in Osaka requested the agency to inquire into the background of job applicants, including their educational and employment history. While reporting an outline of the results to the client by phone, the agency informed them that one of the female applicants was from a Buraku area.
Notification about their discriminatory investigation was first received from an anonymous fax message sent to the BLL, believed to be from one of their former employees. Although Jindai at first denied the allegation when contacted by the Osaka Prefectural Government, they later admitted to it upon disclosure of the above-mentioned report.
At the end of March 1997, the company was given administrative guidance by Osaka Prefectural Government to improve their business ethics. The company violated the 1985 Osaka Prefectural Ordinance to Regulate Personal Background Investigations Conductive to Buraku Discrimination, which prohibits detective agencies from inquiring and/or reporting whether any person lives in a Buraku area. (please refer No. 94 and 96 of the News)
Jindai, a group of companies, has three major companies in Tokyo, Osaka, and Sendai which have several branches respectively. They have 300 employees as a whole. With a lot of clients from big firms, the agency ranks second in the industry in terms of sales.
In response to their investigation, the Osaka Prefectural Federation held fact-finding sessions four times from April to June in 1997, where several executives and employees of the agency were invited. The following points were made clear through the sessions.
---Although the client inquired only about whether resumes submitted by the job applicants were true or not, Jindai reported to the client that one of the female applicants lived in a Buraku area.
----They occasionally conducted investigations that led to Buraku discrimination.
---- Osaka Jindai possesses in its office a list of Buraku areas, similar to the so-called Buraku Lists locating the Buraku areas throughout Japan.
----They sometimes undertake investigations regarding one's private affairs, such as criminal records, political ideas and debts.
Seven personnel, including Mr A, who was President of Osaka Jindai when the investigation in question was conducted and is current President of Tokyo Jindai, as well as present President of Osaka Jindai, attended this session.
At first Mr A repeatedly denied knowledge about several facts disclosed in the past sessions. However, he gradually admitted the facts as the members of the Osaka Federation firmly questioned him. While he insisted that he sometimes instructed his men not to conduct any discriminatory investigation, he was not able to explain either the formal name of the Osaka Prefecture's ordinance or why it was enacted. This suggests that he told lies to evade any responsibility.
Although Jindai has belonged to the Association of Detective Agencies in Osaka Prefecture, an organization which honours the ordinance to guide the industry not to conduct discriminatory investigations, since its creation, Mr A never attended any training seminars on human rights sponsored by the association during his several years in Osaka as President. He pretended to have attended the seminar in the past, but the Chairman of the association who participated in the session denied his allegation by pointing out that no record of his attendance was available.
Until now, Jindai has not reviewed its business ethics. The Osaka Prefectural Federation concluded that they would continue to question Jindai and that they would hold another denunciation session in order to make the agency establish effective measures to eliminate discrimination.
This incident reflects the discriminatory nature of the industry. It is true that several corporations have been committing themselves to eliminate Buraku discrimination. However, the problem seems to be deep-rooted, considering the fact that Jindai is a member company of the Association of Detective Agencies in Osaka Prefecture, which was formed for the purpose of effective implementation of the ordinance.
The incident also suggests that there are still people who want to know about others' origin. In addition, the existence of the ordinance is not known very well.