Diverse and Uneven Reasons of Prejudice against the Buraku and/or the Burakumin : Perspectives from the Japanese Sense of Social World

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  • Hanee Genta
    Kyushu University Department of Human Environment Studies, Doctoral Course Student, Discrimination Matters, Social Consciousness

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  • 「世間」における「部落民」に対する差別理由の多様性と偏在性
  • 「セケン」ニオケル「ブラクミン」ニタイスルサベツリユウノタヨウセイトヘンザイセイ

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For burakumin and those who are working on buraku discrimination, it is the critical problem to find the characteristic reason of prejudice against the burakumin. We analyze the way several reasons of prejudice are manifested in the Japanese sense of "social world" or seken, a concept proposed by Kinya Abe. The "Social world" is recognized as a frame of reference for Japanese thinking. We take a critical stance against identity-politics theory and Michihiko Noguchi's definition of burakumin, and adopt Abe's conception. We performed social surveys in two local communities in the southern region of Fukuoka prefecture. Our specific findings reveal the following characteristics of : 1. reasons of prejudice within the "social world" are nothing peculiar to the burakumin ; 2. the various reasons of prejudice recognized in the "social world" ; 3. each "social world" does not necessarily share the same set of reasons of prejudice, and some reasons prevail in numerous "social worlds" whereas some reasons exist in only a few; and 4. diverse and uneven reasons of prejudice are contingent upon the historical and social contexts. Based on the quantitative analysis of the survey results, we propose the following hypothesis why the aforementioned problem remains unsolved. As the "social world" expands its range, the burakumin often face additional reasons of prejudice. Consequently they are impelled to question the consistency between the labeling as burakumin in general and reasons of prejudice unique to individual cases, and also to scrutinize the validity of these reasons.

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