November 2004 No.133

Buraku Discrimination on the Internet

A former employee of the major N__ Electric Company sent intentionally abusive discriminatory messages to the websites of several BLL branches. He also created a fake website under the name of Y__Bank without the bank's knowledge and posted many anti-Buraku remarks on it. He wrote, "N___ Company is a member of the association to promote discrimination against Buraku in Osaka. We encourage you to discriminate against lowly people residing at the following addresses." The message was posted under the false identity of a person in charge of discriminating against Burakumin in Osaka and included the actual locations of 40 Buraku communities within the prefecture.

The man was arrested on April 11, 2003, and it was subsequently discovered that he was an employee of N__ Electric. The company punished him by dismissing him the following month, but failed to immediately inform BLL Osaka of the fact that one of their employees was responsible for the discriminatory actions until more than 11 months later on March 30, 2004. While the company did inform BLL Osaka of the contents of the discriminatory messages and how the incident developed, their failure to immediately contact BLL Osaka when the man was arrested is indicative of their irresponsible attitude.

The man began to foster malice against N__ Electric due to his dissatisfaction with the company's personnel affairs. At first he sent abusive e-messages within the company, but his actions later escalated due to his desire to get the company into trouble. Using the names of his superiors, he sent defamatory messages to the company's customers and created the false Y__ Bank website to incite discrimination against Buraku.

The Osaka Association of the BLL will call N__ Electric and their former employee to a denunciation session on February 21 this year.