Burakumin...a quaint name for marginalising and sanctioning institutionalised racism in Japan

In Japan there is a whole underground of people known as "untouchables" or "Burakumin". Some of these people were 2nd or 3rd generation Koreans/Chinese who were forced to come to Japan before or during WWII, or "pure" Japanese who were never given a registered domicile during the Meiji restoration coz they couldn't read, or they were below merchants in their social status. (literally "untouchables") Most non-Japanese natives now have their own nationalities (South Korean, Chinese, etc.) or become "naturalised", but the "pure" Japanese burakumin -- well, they are a fogotten and dying race... Unfortunately, most of the burakumin have no human rights even to this day.

They have no registered domicile = they have no Family Name. With no name, they cannot rent or buy property; without an addres they cannot get a permanent job; they cannot get government benefits because they have no registered domicile; they cannot open a bank account coz they have no name/address/registered domicile.... and the continuous loop of injustice, and institutionalised racism goes on.

To the authorities they simply don't exist... but I see them. They are here.


Home for today...

Most of the 2nd and 3rd generation Koreans and Chinese are more Japanese than anyone else that I know. They are well educated and should deserve every right to be a citizen of the country that they grew up in and know no other... I have Korean friends who cannot speak Korean, but can speak better Japanese than me who is "technically" Japanese.

I was born as a foreign citizen and became "naturalised" at 14 when Japan changed it's patriarchial laws. I knew no other world than Japan until my parents sent me to boarding school in England when I was 10years old, which is the one thing that I will always thank them for. Otherwise I think I would be a bitter person growing up in a country that treated me as an "alien", a social "burakumin"...

I wonder if the Burakumin are happy? Even if they live life like a gypsy - from day to day - perhaps they may be content or even happier than those who pass them every day, look down upon them, and move thru time in a cataleptic state until death knocks on their suburban, 3LDK "mansion" doors.

Its funny how the grim reaper does not check your passport or ask for your "registered domicile"(Kosekisho) before he takes you to Hades...