Buraku Liberation News, September 1997 issue (N0.98)
6.Buraku Problem Q & A
"Population Mixture Rate"
Q: I heard that there were only a few people of non-Buraku origin living in Buraku areas. Is it true ?
A: There is a stereotype that Buraku areas are closed communities. In fact, Buraku areas have long been accommodating those who moved in from non-Buraku communities. One of the indicators of this is the ratio of Dowa-related residents to that of Dowa area residents living within Buraku communities.(please refer No. 97 issue of B.L. News)
The Chart 2 shows the ratio by prefecture as of 1993. However, it is not easy to know the exact ratio because it is difficult to count the population of some Dowa areas residents, such as small and scattered Buraku communities.
Moreover, there are instances when Dowa areas are sometimes expanded through the construction of housing projects and this is another factor which makes it difficult to know the actual ratio.
In addition, we have to keep in mind that under the government survey, Dowa-related residents are distinguished by household. If there is even a single Dowa-related resident (Buraku origin) in a certain household, it is defined as Dowa-related household.
We find it more difficult to identify whether a certain household is a Dowa-related household or not, as population mobility becomes higher and higher. When the government alone is not capable of distinguishing the two groups, local people who know about the area quite well are consulted during the survey as resource persons.
And yet it is difficult to precisely determine this within big Dowa communities, such as those located in Osaka City, whose ratio of Dowa-related residents to that of Dowa areas residents was not released in the survey conducted by the Management and Coordination Agency.
According to the survey by the agency, the nationwide average ratio of Dowa-related residents to that of Dowa areas residents was 41.1% in 1993 while 71.9% in 1971, 60.8% in 1975, and 58% in 1987, as shown in Chart 3. The average ratio dropped by 31 points in 22 years.
By prefecture, Kanagawa, Ibaragi, and Oita decreased most in the ratio of Dowa-related residents to that of Dowa areas residents during 1971 to 1993.
Do these figures precisely reflect the transformation of the composition of Dowa areas ? If the number of areas surveyed were fixed, we might easily know the change in the ratio.
However, the number of areas surveyed changed considerably for those prefectures; i.e. from 4 to 14 for Kanagawa, from 1 to 32 for Ibaragi, from 47 to 81 for Oita from 1971 to 1993. Therefore it is not advisable to depend entirely on this survey for determining the ratio.
On the other hand, Shizuoka, Hiroshima, Nara and Gifu did not change in terms of number of Dowa areas surveyed during the same period. Among those prefectures, we can observe the biggest change in Shizuoka, whose ratio dropped by 32 points. The smallest change was Gifu with a 4 points drop.
At any rate, the ratio of Dowa-related residents to that of Dowa areas residents considerably dropped in the past 22 years in almost all the prefectures surveyed. It means that people have moved into Buraku areas from non-Buraku communities.
Simply speaking, there are two types of population influx into Buraku areas. The first is the inflow of poor people. The second is inflow of people who can afford to lead a stable life as residential areas were developed inside Buraku areas.
Until the 1960's, the first category was dominant. After that period, the second type became more prevalent than the first one. The construction of newly-developed residential areas must have been prompted by better living environment established by the Dowa measures.
Ratio of Dowa-related residents to that of Dowa areas residents by prefecture in 1993