Buraku Liberation News, November 1997 issue (N0.99)
3. A Man Who Made Discriminatory Scribbles was Found Guilty.
The Yokkaichi Branch of the Tsu District Court ruled on September 24, 1997 against a man, 44, unemployed, who was accused of damaging property and building structures after he allegedly made discriminatory scribbles on public facilities in July 1997 in Kuwana City, Mie Prefecture.
The man was sentenced to one year in prison with a stay of three years (One year's imprisonment was proposed by the prosecutor.) by Ms Satomi Nakamura, presiding judge of the Branch, who stated as reasons for the judgment that while the accused apparently wrote the graffiti expecting people to be frightened by them, his criminal liability is serious because the graffiti expressing Buraku discrimination was antisocial enough to have a serious impact on society. The graffiti was malicious because it was not easy to erase them, she added.
According to the ruling, the accused made discriminatory scribbles on the mirror of a lavatory at Kuwana Public Employment Security Office on July 7 and inside a restroom at the City Library on July 11.
He was arrested on July 14 after he was seen writing graffiti saying, "Eta(extreme filth), Yotsu(animal), Non human. Their daily jobs are tanning and slaughtering animals," at a lavatory of the Kuwana Public Employment Security Office and was reported to the police by the staff.
It is quite unusual in Japan for a person who wrote discriminatory graffiti to be identified and sentenced. The Mie Prefectural Federation of the Buraku Liberation League commented, "This ruling is a heavier sentence than that for a mere graffiti. We appreciate the judgment. For the judge pointed out the antisocial character of discriminatory graffiti, among others."