Grasping the Reality of Today's Buraku
Towards a Post-Special-Measures Solution to the Buraku Problem
Part 5 (2)
| This is a series of articles summarizing the report entitled, "Study of Actual Conditions of Dowa Districts towards a Solution of Dowa Problem," prepared by the local government of Osaka Prefecture in March, 2001 when the Law on Special Budgetary Measures Concerning Projects designated for Area Improvement became invalid. The report aimed at providing information for developing strategies in combating Buraku discrimination in the Post-Special-Measures era. |
VI. Employment
2. Industry and Work
(1) Workers by industries. (Table 6-5: Distribution of workers by industries)
| male | female | |||
| Dowa District | Osaka Pref. | Dowa District | Osaka Pref. | |
| Total number | 2,393 | 2,811,000 | 1,796 | 1,770,000 |
| Agriculture, fishery | 1.0% | 0.9% | 0.4% | 0.7% |
| Construction | 16.8% | 13.4% | 2.9% | 4.0% |
| Manufacturing | 19.2% | 26.0% | 17.9% | 20.5% |
| Utilities | 1.3% | 1.3% | 0.3% | 0.2% |
| Transpotation and tel comm | 10.5% | 9.2% | 1.8% | 3.0% |
| Wholesale, retail and restaurants | 16.8% | 21.9% | 28.9% | 32.3% |
| Finance and insurance | 0.9% | 2.3% | 2.4% | 3.8% |
| Real estate | 1.5% | 1.6% | 0.8% | 2.1% |
| Service | 23.5% | 18.5% | 36.0% | 31.0% |
| Public duties | 5.6% | 2.4% | 3.7% | 1.4% |
| unknown | 2.9% | 1.4% | 4.7% | 1.2% |
According to the above table, for both male and female respondents, occupations that Dowa district residents engage in are concentrated more in the service industry and public sector than in manufacturing, wholesale & retail, restaurants and finance & insurance. The percentage of Dowa district males who work in manufacturing is 6.8 points lower than that for Osaka Prefecture, while the percentage of Dowa district males and females who work in the service industry is higher by 5 points. Also, the percentage of Dowa district males who work in the construction industry is high. Meanwhile, the National Survey conducted by the Government in 1993 showed that the percentage of males in Dowa districts who work in the construction industry was 24.8%, which is much higher than national average of 10.3% for male workers in the same survey.
The percentage of Dowa district residents who work in the public sector is more than twice that of Osaka Prefecture. Here, the public sector covers the national, prefectural and municipal governments or governmental agencies including administ- rative agencies, boards of education, tax offices, police stations and fire stations. Those who work in public schools and public hospitals are included in the service sector. Those who work in health centers, welfare offices, social insurance offices, public nursery schools, central wholesale markets, public work offices, water/sewage bureaus, clean centers and public transportation offices are not included in the public sector since, by industrial classification, they are not considered to be public duties.
(2) Employment by Industry
This table shows the distribution of employees by occupation. (Table 6-6)
| male | female | |||||
| Dowa District survey this time |
Osaka Pref. |
1990 survey |
Dowa District survey this time |
Osaka Pref. |
1990 survey |
|
| Total number | 1,850 | 2,386,000 | 18,637 | 1,473 | 1,448,000 | 13013 |
| Agriculture, fishery | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| Construction | 15.7% | 12.2% | 16.7% | 2.4% | 3.8% | 2.7% |
| Manufacturing | 19.5% | 27.9% | 24.5% | 18.7% | 20.5% | 26.4% |
| Utilities | 1.7% | 1.6% | 1.4% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| Transportation * | 11.7% | 9.9% | 10.5% | 2.1% | 3.5% | 1.6% |
| Wholesale, retail ** | 12.3% | 20.5% | 12.1% | 23.6% | 30.8% | 22.8% |
| Finance and insurance | 1.0% | 2.6% | 1.1% | 3.0% | 4.6% | 3.7% |
| Real estate | 0.8% | 1.5% | 1.0% | 0.7% | 1.9% | 1.0% |
| Service | 26.8% | 18.2% | 19.7% | 39.7% | 31.6% | 33.9% |
| Public duties | 7.1% | 4.1% | 10.7% | 4.5% | 1.7% | 5.8% |
| unknown | 3.1% | 1.5% | 1.7% | 4.7% | 1.3% | 1.8% |
Source: 1997 "Basic Survey in Work Structure" by Osaka Prefecture
* Transportation and communications ** Wholesale, retails and restaurants
Table 6-6 shows a similar trend to Table 6-5, except for the fact that gaps between Dowa districts and Osaka Prefecture in terms of wholesale/retail and restaurants, and service sectors are greater than those in Table 6-5 for both males and females. In addition, the percentage for wholesale/retail and restaurants is lower than the same sector in Table 6-5 (lower by 4.5 points for males, and 5.3 points for females), while it is higher for the service industry (higher by 3.3 points for males, and 3.7 points for females). This shows that many Dowa districts residents tend to either operate wholesale/retail or restaurant businesses or help out in such family businesses, or are employed in the service industry.
The 1990 survey showed the distribution of employees by industry. In comparison with 1990 percentages and those for Dowa districts, a significant gap can be seen between the manufacturing and service industries. As these two surveys were conducted using different methods, a strict comparison cannot be made, but the differences indicate that, during the ten-year interval between these two surveys, employment in the manufacturing sector decreased for both men and women, while employment in the service sector increased. Also, employment in the public sector has decreased from10.7% and 5.8% for men and women respectively.
(3) Workers by Occupation
Table 6-7 shows the distribution of workers by occupation.
| Male | Female | |||||
| Dowa Districts | Osaka Pref | 1990 survey | Dowa Districts | Osaka Pref | 1990 survey | |
| Corresponding Number | 2,393 | 2,811,000 | 24,037 | 1,796 | 1,770,000 | 16,712 |
| Professional / Technical | 7.1 | 10.9 | 6.8 | 10.6 | 13.7 | 8.4 |
| Management | 5 | 5.4 | 2.9 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 0.7 |
| Clerical | 11 | 13.9 | 8.4 | 20.1 | 34.9 | 20.3 |
| Sales | 12.1 | 19 | 14.5 | 18.3 | 13.3 | 17.2 |
| Service | 7.4 | 5.8 | 5.7 | 23.1 | 13.6 | 20.6 |
| Security | 2.4 | 2.1 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Agriculture & Fisheries | 1.1 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Transport / TeleComm. | 11.2 | 5.3 | 10.4 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Manual Labor *** | 39.3 | 35.3 | 46.3 | 20.8 | 21.2 | 30 |
| Unknown | 3.4 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 4.8 | 1.1 | 1.9 |
Sources: 1997 "Basic Survey of Work Construction" by Osaka Prefecture
*** Manual labor, and those engaged in mining, manufacturing and construction
According to the above table, the percentages of both professional/technical workers and clerical workers in Dowa districts are lower than those for Osaka Prefecture, while the percentage of workers in the service sector is higher. Many Dowa district males work in the transport/ communication, mining, manufacturing and construction industries as manual laborers.
According to the "Japan Standard Occupation Classification," professional and technical workers are defined as "those who are engaged in technical work that requires a high degree of scientific knowledge, or who are engaged in medical, legal, educational, religious, artistic or other specialized work," and that "engagement in these kinds of work requires highly scientific training at universities or research institutions, other training in specialized areas, work experience that is equivalent to the aforementioned, or artistic creativity." In other words, professional and technical workers are scientists, technicians, medical doctors, nurses, certificated public accountants, teachers or artists. In short, the majority of those who are engaged in professional/technical work have high educational backgrounds with at least a junior college diploma. Consequently, the low percentage of professional/technical workers in Dowa districts for both males and females demonstrates the low percentage of college/university enrollment for Dowa district children.
A comparison with the 1990 figures shows a number of changes including those in the percentages of professional/ technical workers and manual workers. The former dropped from the 1990 figure, while the latter increased from the 1990 figure for both males and females. Also, the percentage of male clerical workers in Dowa districts increased from the 1990 figure by 2.6 points, while that for Dowa district females remained the same.
Thus, especially for Dowa district males, the trend of having a small white-collar group and a large blue-collar group has changed.
(4) Employment by occupations
Table 6-8 Construction Percentages of Employees by Occupations
| male | female | |||
| Dowa districts | Osaka pref. | Dowa districts | Osaka pref. | |
| corresponding number | 1,850 | 2,386,000 | 1,473 | 1,448,000 |
| Professional/technical | 7.6 | 10.8 | 12.4 | 14.7 |
| Management | 3.8 | 6.1 | 0.3 | 1.3 |
| Clerical | 13.8 | 16.3 | 22.5 | 38.8 |
| Sales | 6.8 | 18.4 | 12.8 | 11.3 |
| Service-related | 7.6 | 4.6 | 24.0 | 12.0 |
| Security | 3.1 | 2.5 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| Agricultural & fishery | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Transportation/communi. | 12.6 | 5.6 | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Manual labor *** | 40.5 | 34.2 | 22.3 | 19.8 |
| Unknown | 3.6 | 1.4 | 4.8 | 1.2 |
Sources: 1997 "Basic Survey of Work Construction" of Osaka Prefecture
*** Manual labor, and those engaged in mining, manufacturing and construction
The general trends in Table 6-8 are the same as those in Table 6-7. Bigger gaps are found in the distributions of male employees in management and sales positions. The gap between Dowa districts and Osaka Prefecture for male employees in management positions is 2.3 points, compared to 0.4 points in Table 6-7. Similarly, the gap in sales positions is 11.6 points, compared to 6.9 points in Table 6-7. For females, the proportion of sales workers in Dowa district is greater than that for Osaka Prefecture by 1.5 points in Table 6-7, compared to 5.0 points in Table 6-8. These show that the management positions held by Dowa district males are held more by self-employed people than by employees. This is also the case with sales positions. Many of those who have sales jobs in Dowa districts are self-employed.
(5) Workers with College Diplomas by Occupation
Table 6-9 shows the distribution of male workers with at least a college diploma by occupation. Please note that only the 1990 National Census is available as a comparison to the survey conducted in 2001 for Dowa districts.
Table 6-7 shows that male and female employees in Dowa districts are typically less often white-collar and more often blue-collar.
.Table 6-9: Distribution of Workers with College Diplomas by Occupation
| male | female | |||
| Dowa districts | Osaka pref. | Dowa districts | Osaka pref. | |
| corresponding number | 189 | 622,106 | 84 | 107,860 |
| Professional/technical | 22.2 | 26.4 | 43.8 | 46.8 |
| Management | 9.5 | 10.5 | 1.6 | 1.6 |
| Clerical | 30.7 | 20.2 | 31.3 | 34.1 |
| Sales | 16.9 | 28.3 | 7.8 | 9.7 |
| Service-related | 4.2 | 1.7 | 9.4 | 2.9 |
| Security | 0.5 | 1.3 | - | 0.1 |
| Agricultural & fishery | - | 0.2 | - | 0.1 |
| Transportation/communi. | 2.6 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 0.2 |
| Manual labor *** | 10.6 | 10.2 | 1.6 | 3.8 |
| Unknown | 2.6 | 0.5 | 3.1 | 0.9 |
Sources: Osaka Prefecture 1990 National Census
**** Manual labor, and those engaged in mining, manufacturing and construction.
However, as far as college graduates are concerned, conspicuous gaps between Dowa districts and Osaka Prefecture are not found anywhere except in sales. While there are a lower proportion of professional/ technical workers in Dowa districts than Osaka Prefecture, the gaps are much smaller than the gaps shown in Table 6-7. Also, the percentage of male clerical workers in Dowa districts is greater than that for Osaka Prefecture by 10.5 points. For male manual workers, the percentage for Dowa
districts is almost the same as that for Osaka Prefecture. Similarly, it is lower for female manual workers in Dowa districts than in Osaka Prefecture. In short, the typical characteristics of Dowa districts that have more blue-collar and less white-collar cannot be seen in Table 6-9 for college graduates. Conversely, among those who have low educational backgrounds in Dowa districts, the typical trends in occupational distribution are stronger.
<to be continued>
Buraku Liberation News is fully responsible for summarizing the Reports in this series.
Note (1) Some of the reports are available (Japanese version only) on the website of the Osaka Government: http://www.pref.osaka.jp/jinken/measure/tyosa/index.html
(2) Previous articles in this series can be found at http://blhrri.org/index_e.htm