Are Japanese Buraku people also Dalits?
Japan does have its own problem of discrimination based on “descent or work and occupation”: the Buraku people. These people are descendants of feudal-era outcastes, who had work such as slaughtering animals and leather work. The Buddhist and Shinto religions categorised these tasks as unclean. In the 17th century, there were three social classes: warriors, peasants and townspeople. The outcastes, ancestors of today’s Buraku people, were called Eta (extreme filth) and Hinin (non-human). 1n 1871, an ‘Emancipation Edict’ abolished the lowest social rank. However, no effective effort has been made to implement this declaration. Today, according to government statistics, 1,200,000 Buraku people live in 4,400 Buraku communities. However, these figures only include people living in a limited number of government-defined areas. The true Buraku population is about 3,000,000 people in up to 6,000 communities.
