Editing Burakumin (section)

== Post-war situation ==
Although liberated legally during 1871 with the abolition of the feudal [[caste system]], this did not end social [[discrimination]] against {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} nor improve their living standards; until recently,{{when|date=June 2021}} [[Koseki|Japanese family registration]] was fixed to an ancestral home address, which allowed people to deduce their {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} ancestry.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}

=== Demographics ===
The number of {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} asserted to be living in modern Japan varies from source to source. Japanese government statistics show the number of residents of assimilation districts who claim {{transliteration|ja|buraku}} ancestry, whereas the [[Buraku Liberation League]] (BLL) figures are estimates of the total number of descendants of all former and current {{transliteration|ja|buraku}} residents, including current residents without any {{transliteration|ja|buraku}} ancestry.

A 1993 report by the Japanese government counted 4,533 {{nihongo3|assimilation districts|同和地区|dōwa chiku}} throughout the country. Most were located in western Japan, while none were located in [[Hokkaido]] and [[Tōhoku]]. About three quarters of the districts are in rural areas. The size of each community ranged from less than five households to more than 1,000 households.<ref>{{cite web |author1=野口道彦 |script-title=ja:同和地区 |website=Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute |language=ja |access-date=February 2, 2020 |url=http://blhrri.org/nyumon/yougo/nyumon_yougo_02.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060522103357/http://blhrri.org/nyumon/yougo/nyumon_yougo_02.htm |archive-date=May 22, 2006 }}</ref>

It is estimated that around 1,000 ''buraku'' communities chose not to register as {{transliteration|ja|dōwa chiku}}, wanting to avoid the negative attention that could come from explicitly declaring themselves {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hankins |first1=Joseph D |title=Working Skin: Making Leather, Making a Multicultural Japan |date=2014 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520959163 |page=92}}</ref> BLL has extrapolated Meiji-era figures to arrive at an estimate of nearly three million {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}}.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/7/alldritt001.html |title=The Burakumin: The Complicity of Japanese Buddhism in Oppression and an Opportunity for Liberation |author=Leslie D. Alldritt |journal=Journal of Buddhist Ethics |date=July 2000 |issn=1076-9005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051125094650/http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/7/alldritt001.html |archive-date=November 25, 2005 }}</ref> In some areas, {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} are in a majority; per a 1997 report, they accounted for more than 70 percent of all residents of [[Yoshikawa, Kōchi|Yoshikawa]] (now [[Kōnan, Kōchi|Kōnan]]) in [[Kōchi Prefecture]]. In [[Oto, Fukuoka|Ōtō]], [[Fukuoka Prefecture]], they accounted for more than 60 percent.<ref>{{cite book|script-title=ja:図説 今日の部落差別 各地の実態調査結果より |trans-title=Illustrated Today's Buraku Discrimination Based on Survey Results in Various Regions |title=Zusetsu kyō no buraku sabetsu kakuchi no jittai chōsa kekka yori |pages=31 |date=March 15, 1997 |publisher=[[:ja:部落解放・人権研究所|BLHRRI]] |isbn=4-7592-0193-9 |language=ja}}</ref>

According to a survey performed by the [[Tokyo Metropolitan Government]] during 2003, 76% of Tokyo residents would not change their opinion of a close neighbor whom they discovered to be a {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}}; 4.9% of respondents, on the other hand, would actively avoid a {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} neighbor. There is still a [[social stigma]] for being a resident of certain areas associated traditionally with the {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}}, and some lingering [[Ethnic issues in Japan|discrimination]] in matters such as [[Marriage in Japan|marriage]] and [[Economy of Japan|employment]].<ref>{{cite web |date=March 23, 2003 |script-title=ja:東京の被差別部落の歴史と現状・全文 |title=Tōkyō no hisabetsuburaku no rekishi to genjō zenbun |trans-title=The History and Present Situation of Discriminated Buraku in Tokyo Full Text |language=ja |location=Tokyo |publisher=Buraku Liberation League |access-date=April 29, 2010 |archive-date=June 6, 2011 |url=http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~mg5s-hsgw/tkburaku/history/tkbtxt.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606173704/http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~mg5s-hsgw/tkburaku/history/tkbtxt.html}}</ref>

=== Discrimination in access to services ===
In many parts of the country, {{transliteration|ja|buraku}} settlements built on the site of former {{transliteration|ja|eta}} villages ceased to exist by the 1960s because of either urban development or integration into mainstream society. However, in other regions, many of their residents continued to suffer from slum-like housing and infrastructure, lower economic status, illiteracy, and lower general educational standards.{{Citation needed|date=September 2017}}

In 1969, the government passed the {{nihongo|Special Measures Law for Assimilation Projects|同和対策事業特別措置法|dōwa taisaku jigyō tokubetsu sochihō}}<ref>{{cite web |script-title=ja:法律第六十号(昭四四・七・一〇) 同和対策事業特別措置法 |title=Hōritsu dai roku jū-gō (Akira shi shi nana ichi rei) dōwa taisaku jigyō tokubetsu sochi-hō |trans-title=Law No. 60 (Showa 44.7.10) Dowa countermeasures business special measures law |website=The House of Representatives, Japan |url=http://www.shugiin.go.jp/internet/itdb_housei.nsf/html/houritsu/06119690710060.htm |access-date=August 7, 2020 |language=ja}}</ref> to provide funding to these communities. Communities deemed to be in need of funding were designated for various {{nihongo|Assimilation Projects|同和対策事業|dōwa taisaku jigyō}}, such as construction of new housing and community facilities such as health centers, libraries and swimming pools. The projects were terminated in 2002 with a total funding of an estimated 12 trillion yen over 33 years.{{Citation needed|date=September 2017}}

=== Social discrimination ===
Cases of social discrimination against residents of {{transliteration|ja|buraku}} areas are still an issue in certain regions. Outside of the [[Kansai]] region, people in general are often not aware of the issues experienced by those of {{transliteration|ja|buraku}} ancestry, and if they are, this awareness may only be awareness of the history of feudal Japan. Due to the sensitive nature of the topic and the campaigns by the [[Buraku Liberation League]] to remove any references in the media that may propagate discrimination against them, the issue is rarely discussed in the media.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=From the Cutting Room |magazine=[[Far Eastern Economic Review]] |date=July 9, 1992 |pages=28–29|first=Robert|last=Guest}}</ref>

Prejudice against {{transliteration|ja|buraku}} most often manifests itself in the form of marriage discrimination and sometimes in [[Employment discrimination|employment]]. Traditionalist families have been known to check on the backgrounds of potential in-laws to identify people of {{transliteration|ja|buraku}} ancestry. These checks are now illegal, and marriage discrimination is diminishing; Nadamoto Masahisa of the Buraku History Institute estimates that between 60 and 80% of {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} marry a non-{{transliteration|ja|burakumin}}, whereas for people born during the late 1930s and early 1940s, the rate was 10%.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nancho.net/kyoto/nadamoto.html|title = Kyoto Ijin: Nadamoto Masahisa}}</ref> Over the past decades, the number of marriages between {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} and non-{{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} have increased, and opinion polls have shown a decrease in the number of Japanese willing to state they would discriminate against {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}}.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Morgan |first1=Charlie V. |title=A Case Study of Buraku and Non-Buraku Couples in Japan |journal=Journal of Comparative Family Studies |date=2007 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=31–54 |doi=10.3138/jcfs.38.1.31 |jstor=41604121 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41604121 |access-date=12 January 2023}}</ref>

Many companies were known to have used lists of {{transliteration|ja|buraku}} addresses that were developed first in 1975 to exclude the {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}}. The average income of a {{transliteration|ja|buraku}} family was significantly less than the national average (60% in 1992).<ref name=guest>{{cite magazine |title=A tale of two sisters |magazine=Far Eastern Economic Review |date=July 9, 1992 |pages=28–29|first=Robert|last=Guest}}</ref>

Cases of continuing social discrimination are known to occur mainly in western Japan, particularly in the [[Osaka]], [[Kyoto]], [[Hyōgo Prefecture|Hyogo]], and [[Hiroshima]] regions, where many people, especially the older generation, stereotype {{transliteration|ja|buraku}} residents (whatever their ancestry) and associate them with squalor, unemployment and criminality.<ref>{{cite web |author=Alastair McLaughlan |title=Japan's Burakumin: An Introduction |website=Japan Focus |archive-date=April 30, 2006 |access-date=May 8, 2006 |url=http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id%3D485 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060430222434/http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=485 }}</ref>

No {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} communities were identified in the following [[Prefectures of Japan|prefectures]]: [[Hokkaido]], [[Aomori Prefecture|Aomori]], [[Iwate Prefecture|Iwate]], [[Miyagi Prefecture|Miyagi]], [[Akita Prefecture|Akita]], [[Yamagata Prefecture|Yamagata]], [[Fukushima Prefecture|Fukushima]], [[Tokyo]], [[Toyama Prefecture|Toyama]], [[Ishikawa Prefecture|Ishikawa]], and [[Okinawa Prefecture|Okinawa]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://blhrri.org/nyumon/yougo/nyumon_yougo_02.htm |script-title=ja:同和地区 |title=Dōwa chiku |trans-title=Dōwa district |language=ja |publisher=Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060522103357/http://blhrri.org/nyumon/yougo/nyumon_yougo_02.htm |archive-date=May 22, 2006}}</ref>

=== Yakuza membership ===
According to [[David E. Kaplan (author)|David E. Kaplan]] and Alec Dubro in ''Yakuza: The Explosive Account of Japan's Criminal Underworld'' (1986), {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} account for about 70% of the members of the [[Yamaguchi-gumi]], the largest [[yakuza]] crime syndicate in Japan.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kaplan |first1=David E. |last2=Dubro |first2=Alec |title=Yakuza: The Explosive Account of Japan's Criminal Underworld |location=Massachusetts |publisher=Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. |date=1986 |page=133}}</ref>

Mitsuhiro Suganuma, an ex-member of the [[Public Security Intelligence Agency]], testified in 2006 that {{transliteration|ja|burakumin}} account for about 60 percent of yakuza.<ref name="Suganuma">Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/WA1X2gCImbQ Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160415232741/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA1X2gCImbQ Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web |date=October 19, 2006 |title=Speech by Mitsuhiro Suganuma |work=Japanese Yakuza |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA1X2gCImbQ}}{{cbignore}}</ref>