May and July 2002 No.123

Grasping the Reality of Today's Buraku

Towards a Post-Special-Measures Solution to the Buraku Problem

- Part 1 -

In March 2001, the local government of Osaka Prefecture released the report entitled "Study of Actual Conditions of Dowa Districts towards a Solution of Dowa Problem". A committee that was specially set up for the study, consisting of 14 members including professors and government officials, compiled the report. It was released around the time when the Law on Specific Budgetary Measures concerning the Projects designated for Area Improvement became invalid. The study was conducted for the purpose of collecting the most up-to-date and precise data and information concerning the Buraku problem and analyzing the collected data in the hope that it will provide the local government and other concerned bodies with a basis for developing strategies in combating Buraku discrimination in the post-Special-Measures era.

The study was comprehensive. It covered various topics including living conditions of people in Dowa districts, discrimination experienced by Buraku people, perception of Buraku people as well as people outside Dowa districts, analysis of today's phenomena of Buraku discrimination, overviews of Dowa districts and implementation of Dowa projects. Several different reports were published on the basis of the study's findings. Three of these reports are currently available (Japanese version only) on the website of the Osaka Prefectural Government. http://www.pref.osaka.jp/jinken/measure/tyosa/index.html

These are entitled:

1) Actual Conditions of Current Dowa Districts towards a Solution to the Dowa Problem (study of the living conditions of Dowa districts)

2) Analysis made by the Committee towards a solution to the Dowa Problem (based on the study of living conditions around Dowa districts)

3) Actual Conditions of Current Dowa Districts towards a Solution to the Dowa Problem (perception of general public in Osaka Prefecture)

In this series, we will focus on the first report, the study of living conditions around Dowa districts, which comprises of several chapters including households in the districts, marriage, education, the digital divide, welfare programs, employment and industries, and housing. As the report we will focus on alone is quite wide-ranging, we will pick up some of more interesting chapters to report on in this series in the hope that they will be relevant to the interest of our readers. To begin with, this issue will summarize the technical aspects of the study of Dowa districts.

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I. Outlines of Survey

1. Method

The survey was conducted in 48 Dowa districts located in 23 different Osaka Prefecture municipalities where Dowa projects have been implemented. It was conducted through questionnaires that were given to 10,000 male and female residents aged above 15, who were randomly selected from the selected Dowa districts. Surveyors, who were appointed by the relevant municipal governments and were given training beforehand, distributed questionnaires to the respondents in the target districts. The survey took place from May 15th to 31st, 2000.

2. Composition of Respondents|Classification by Sex, Age, Nationality and Connection with Dowa districts

Out of the 10,000 people who were asked to answer to the questionnaire, 7,805 people gave effective responses. They consisted of 3,685 male and 4,120 female respondents (47.2% and 52.8% respectively). The age distribution among the effective respondents was: 497 or 6.4% by the age group between 15 and 19; 1,142 or 14.6% by the age group between 20 and 29; 1,122 or 14.4% by the age group between 30 and 39; 1,116 or 14.3% by the age group between 40 and 49; 1,504 or 19.3% by the age group between 50 and 59; 1,403 or 18.0% by the age group between 60 and 69; and 1,021 or 13.1% by those aged 70 or over.

By nationality, 7,299 or 93.5% of respondents were Japanese, while 484 or 6.2% were Korean, and 22 or 0.3% were classified as "other" or "unknown".

Besides the distinction between those respondents who were born in the place where they currently live and those who were not, another distinction was made on the basis of respondents' connection with the Dowa district in which they currently reside. This distinction was made under the following three distinct classifications:

By Category 1, 55.6% of respondents were born in a Dowa district, while the remaining 36.7% were born in places other than Dowa districts. (7.6% were unknown)

By Category 2, those who have always lived in their current district of residence account for 32.0%, while those who have lived outside their current district of residence account for 67.8%.

By Category 3, those who were born in their current district of residence, but who have lived in other places, account for 15.1%, while those who were not born in their current district of residence account for 52.7%. Also, those who were born in a Dowa district and later moved into their current district of residence account for 23.7%, while those who were not born in a Dowa district and later moved into their current district account for 36.7%.

Buraku Liberation News is fully responsible for summarizing the Reports in this series.