Koseki at root of problem
In an earlier article about the burakumin and the issue of family registration in Japan, this opinion piece in the Japan Times sheds some more light.
Tim Boyle in Osaka writes: "I wish to thank you for the excellent article "Breaking the silence on burakumin" on Jan. 20. I work for the Buraku Liberation Center in Osaka and was featured in the Aug. 2, 2008, issue (search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080802a1.html). One point I would add is that it is the koseki (family registry) system itself that is the main practical reason buraku discrimination has hung on so long. In our latest newsletter, I wrote a short article about that."The two main ways that buraku discrimination occurs in today's Japan is through marriage and employment discrimination. If someone of buraku descent intends to marry someone of nonburaku descent, the nonburaku person's parents often utilize a 'background check' to determine ancestry, and if buraku roots are detected, they then put great pressure on the couple to break the relationship off."Companies also use such 'background checks' to weed out 'undesirables,' of which buraku descent is high on the list, irrespective of that person's abilities."Needless to say, while the ideal is to have an egalitarian society that doesn't judge a person by his or her ancestry, one practical solution to the abuse of these 'background checks' would be to make it much more difficult to do. The koseki system is what allows these ancestry checks, and while recent improvements have made it illegal for third parties to see one's koseki, the very existence of this information guarantees that those seeking to abuse the system will find a way."Japan's koseki system is a throwback to its feudal past, and its continued existence has been a major obstacle in the road towards eliminating another throwback — buraku discrimination. A major overhaul of this system would certainly go a long way towards reducing buraku discrimination."The BLC's English newsletters can be viewed at www.konkyo.org/burakukaiho/news/burakuhistory.pdf."
