The global development of governance technology and chains of "racialization" : On the formation of Buraku problems in modern Japan

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  • 統治テクノロジーのグローバルな展開と「人種化」の連鎖 --日本近代の部落問題の「成立」をめぐって--
  • トウチ テクノロジー ノ グローバル ナ テンカイ ト 「 ジンシュカ 」 ノ レンサ : ニホン キンダイ ノ ブラク モンダイ ノ セイリツ オ メグッテ

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This paper examines the formation of Buraku (discriminated village) problem from the end of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century in Japan, with particular focus on its relationship with racism propagated globally by the installment of new knowledge, technology, and systems. The Japanese Buraku problem has long been considered as the product of feudal status systems existing from the pre-modern period. More than 150 years have passed since the enactment of status liberation, however, discrimination continues in modern Japanese society in spite of its economic growth. In other words, the conventional framework for interpreting Buraku problem is no longer convincing. Therefore, we need to elucidate the structure and mechanism which cause discrimination in modern society. Michel Foucault argues that governance under modern capitalism can be explained by his term "bio-politics" which regulates human health, life and death in order to maximize the labor efficiency. Knowledge, such as physiology, medicine, and psychology, play important roles in terms of creating biopolitics that govern the human body as a block of population. These sciences also provide a "standardized" image of the human condition whilst classifying those who are "normal" and those who are "abnormal." Those who are classified as deviating from the "standard" of mental and physical development (ex. poor, vagrant and disabled, psychotic, criminal, widow) are seen as sending dangerous elements to society though using genetics and environment. Therefore, they become subjects for education, treatment, and correction in order to prevent society deteriorating. Such perspectives on "abnormal" people were usually linked to the ethnic groups in the society which has produced new types of racism. In Japan, the villagers in Buraku have been seen as a dangerous element, and the Japanese government in the said above period had launched various social improvement policies in order to enhance the quality of lives and psychological states.

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  • 人文學報

    人文學報 114 73-95, 2019-12-25

    THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES, KYOTO UNIVERSITY

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