Origins (pre-modern period) The origins of
buraku discrimination are connected to status distinctions that existed in Japan from the pre-modern era. During the
Yamatai state ( 1st–3rd century CE), a class structure composed of royalty, nobles, commoners, and slaves existed, with clear status distinctions. However, the direct institutional precursor to the
buraku outcaste system was the (, "base/lowly people") system established under the legal codes in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. Influenced by Chinese legal structures, the system divided the population into (, "good people") and . The class included various groups, such as imperial tomb guards () and government- or privately-owned slaves (). This system made slavery hereditary, forbade intermarriage with , and connected the notion of "baseness" with the polluting nature of death, as tomb guards were re-assigned to status. During the
Heian period (794–1185), discrimination based on ideas of ritual pollution (), derived from both
Shinto and
Buddhist beliefs, became more pronounced. The code (927) stipulated periods of impurity following contact with death (human or animal), birth, and blood, which strengthened occupational discrimination against those who handled such things. Buddhist texts introduced the concept of (a transliteration of the Sanskrit
caṇḍāla, referring to the lowest castes in India) to describe those with "bad integrity," such as butchers, hunters, and fishermen. These religious and legal ideas gradually spread, leading to increased prejudice against butchers and leather workers, who were often excluded from mainstream society, particularly in and around the capital,
Kyoto. Popular theories about the origins of the outcastes often suggest a foreign ancestry, including Korean, but these are generally after-the-fact rationalizations; as a whole, the outcastes are not descendants of Koreans, but are ethnically Japanese. For instance, some
Kokugaku scholars in the late
Tokugawa period proposed that were descendants of Korean prisoners of war, a theory intended to either assert Japanese supremacy or as a veiled attack on
Confucianism, which they associated with Korea.
Middle Ages and early modern period During the Middle Ages ( 12th–16th centuries), which some historians characterize as a "loose caste society", the status system became more fluid and less legally defined than under the codes. Discriminated groups could be broadly classified into three types: , , and . In some historical scholarship, medieval marginalized groups are referred to as "outcasts", a term that reflects their potential social mobility, in contrast to the more rigid status of "outcastes" in the early modern period. • (also known as , , or ) were primarily associated with occupations involving butchery and leatherwork. The term is thought to derive from ("feeder" of
hawks and animals). They lived in specific locations, often on riverbanks (hence , "river-side people"), which were necessary for the tanning process. Besides leatherwork, they also worked as landscape gardeners, well-diggers, and were tasked with carrying out punishments and handling the dead. • ("non-humans") were a more narrowly defined group, consisting mainly of beggars, the sick (particularly those with
leprosy), orphans, and the destitute. Unlike the , whose status was permanent, the status was not always hereditary, and individuals could sometimes move back into the commoner class. They formed communities () often near temples or graveyards, such as at
Kiyomizu temple in
Kyoto and in
Nara. Their leaders were known as . They lived by begging and also performed duties such as guarding, cleaning for temples, and arresting criminals. • ("scattered people") were groups such as garden sweepers and performers who were often attached to government agencies or temples and led a discriminated existence. During the
Sengoku period (1467–1603), regional warlords () began to organize leather workers, then called , to ensure a stable supply of leather for military goods like armour. These artisans were controlled through their group leaders and granted a monopoly over their craft in exchange for taxes and services. In areas like northern
Kyushu, outcaste communities existed from at least the 16th century, primarily engaged in leatherwork but also farming and producing craft goods such as drums. The establishment of the
Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868) solidified a
national status system. The population was broadly divided into samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants, with the discriminated groups placed at the very bottom, in part as a political tool to maintain social control and discourage peasant uprisings. The (or in eastern Japan) and statuses were formalized and made hereditary. People with these statuses were registered separately in religious census records and lived in segregated villages or parts of towns. Their duties included leatherwork, drum making, acting as jailers and executioners, and policing functions. While their status was seen as polluting, many outcastes supported themselves through the same means as commoners, not only their mandated jobs. In a series of edicts between 1715 and 1730 known as the
Kyōhō Reforms, the government strengthened the status system by codifying discriminatory regulations regarding clothing, hairstyle, and movement, making it virtually impossible for even non-hereditary to be absorbed into the mainstream. These regulations resulted in outcaste communities becoming larger and more isolated. While small and scattered in the 17th century, by the mid-19th century they were large, visible communities regarded with contempt and fear. The population, in particular, may have increased by as much as 300 percent between 1720 and 1850, partly as a result of members of the mainstream population falling into outcaste areas, and partly because outcastes were more resilient to famine due to their access to meat. The
Bakufu and various
domains enacted increasingly detailed discriminatory policies, such as prescribing their clothing, forbidding them from entering towns at night, and restricting their interaction with commoners, further amplifying social prejudice. However, the status of these groups was ambivalent; many leaders within outcaste communities, such as Danzaemon in
Edo, had considerable wealth and social standing. Moreover, membership of and groups was not always stable or straightforward, with evidence of movement and absconding from these communities.
Modern Japan (Meiji period to WWII) On 28 August 1871, the new
Meiji government issued the , commonly known as the . The edict abolished the titles of , , and others, declaring that these people were to be treated as commoners () in status and occupation. The reform was motivated partly by the need to create a unified tax system and an efficient national space, and partly by the influence of modern Western concepts of equality and human rights. However, the edict did not end social discrimination. While the former outcastes largely responded with elation, demanding equal rights and in some cases engaging in self-policing to become more acceptable to the majority, many commoners reacted with hostility, seeing the reform not as an elevation of the
burakumin but as a demotion for themselves that violated the traditional "moral economy". Violent riots occurred in opposition to the edict, often linked to broader discontent with Meiji modernization policies like conscription and
land tax reform. These included "eta hunts" () and the destruction of
buraku homes and property. In June 1873, a major rebellion in
Fukuoka Prefecture known as the involved up to 300,000 people and resulted in the destruction of over 2,000 houses belonging to "new commoners", including the near-total destruction of the Horiguchi community in
Hakata. The abolition of their traditional occupations, which had been guaranteed monopolies, was a double-edged sword: while it removed hereditary bonds to certain jobs, it also thrust many into economic difficulty as they were forced to compete with other entrepreneurs without state support. Discrimination was enabled through the (family registry) system, which marked former outcastes as "new commoners", allowing their ancestry to be easily traced and perpetuating barriers to social integration. The intellectual climate of the late 19th century exacerbated this social prejudice. The universalist ideals of the "civilization and enlightenment" period of the 1870s gave way in the 1880s to a new discourse shaped by
Social Darwinism,
eugenics, and concerns about public hygiene. In 1884, for example, the influential educator Takahashi Yoshio warned against intermarriage with
burakumin to prevent the "pollution" of the Japanese gene pool with hereditary diseases like
leprosy. The popular press, especially during
cholera outbreaks, began to portray
buraku communities as unsanitary
ghettos and their residents as inherently diseased, immoral, and deviant. Journalist Yokoyama Gennosuke's 1899 report on a
Tokyo buraku characterized residents as having an "indescribable stench" and being prone to a debauched and criminal lifestyle, framing these traits as endemic to the people themselves. The most enduring new boundary was a quasi-racial one: the idea that
burakumin were of a "different race or ethnic group" from mainstream Japanese, a concept that became a powerful barrier to intermarriage. This theory was taken up by early anthropologists, who posited Korean or other "foreign" origins for the
burakumin. Though later "scientific" studies by figures like
Torii Ryūzō sought to prove they were "normal Japanese," the popular press often twisted these findings to reinforce the idea of racial difference. This notion of a different "lineage" or "impure bloodline" became central to modern
buraku discrimination. The government's municipal amalgamation program of 1888–1889 systematically excluded
buraku communities from newly formed villages and towns, forcing them to remain as isolated administrative units, which further entrenched their segregation and poverty. It was only after the
Russo-Japanese War that the government, concerned about national unity and social stability, began to address the
buraku issue through . Starting in
Mie Prefecture in 1905, these policies were primarily "moral" movements aimed at reforming the customs and habits of the
burakumin, with little budget or attention to economic problems. In response, affluent
burakumin began to organize their own movements. The Dai Nippon Dōhō Yūwa Kai (Greater Japan Fraternal Conciliation Society), formed in 1903, and its successor the Yamato Dōshikai, advocated for "conciliation" (). This approach, often called the (Harmony Movement), was assimilationist, encouraging
burakumin to prove their worth to mainstream society through hard work and patriotism. The government feared a link between
buraku communities and the
socialist movement, which spurred the state to develop a national policy. , depicting a
crown of thorns The
1918 Rice Riots were a major turning point.
Burakumin participated heavily in the nationwide protests and were disproportionately targeted for arrest and punishment by the authorities, making up 10.8% of those prosecuted while being less than 2% of the population. This repression fueled a desire for a self-directed liberation movement. On 3 March 1922, the was founded in Kyoto. Its declaration famously proclaimed: "The time has come when we can be proud of being ." The Suiheisha became the first nationwide, self-directed
buraku liberation movement, championing pride, self-respect, and a strategy of of discrimination wherever it occurred. In its early years, the movement combined an ideology of ethnic nationalism with fervent patriotism, criticizing the majority's prejudice as a betrayal of the emperor's will. In the mid-1920s, the movement was heavily influenced by socialism and
communism, leading to a major ideological shift and internal conflict between those advocating for class struggle and those focusing on
buraku-specific issues. The movement was re-energized by the 1933 Takamatsu Trial Incident, a court case involving blatant discrimination, which led to a new platform that defined
burakumin as an "oppressed" group (). As Japan moved towards militarism in the 1930s, the Suiheisha was co-opted into supporting the war effort, adopting state rhetoric like "national conciliation" (). In June 1941, the wider movement was restructured by the state to create the , a "powerful reconciliation movement of state officials and people" in which discrimination was defined as "unpatriotic activity". The Suiheisha was ultimately forced to dissolve by the government in 1942 as part of the consolidation of civil society organizations under the
Imperial Rule Assistance Association.
Post–World War II , known as the "father of
buraku liberation" Immediately after
Japan's surrender in 1945, the
buraku liberation movement was revived. In February 1946, former members and pre-war activists came together to form the
Buraku Liberation National Committee ( , or BNLC). The new
Constitution of Japan, promulgated in 1946, explicitly guaranteed equality under the law in Article 14, stating there shall be no discrimination based on "race, creed, sex, social status or family origin." Activists like
Jiichirō Matsumoto were involved in the drafting process and successfully lobbied for protections related to marriage and family, such as Article 24, which states that marriage shall be based
only on mutual consent. Despite these legal changes, the living conditions in
buraku communities remained dire. They were largely left behind by post-war land reforms and economic recovery, suffering from high unemployment, poor housing, and inadequate sanitation. Although the central government and the
Occupation authorities were largely indifferent, some local governments, particularly in the
Kansai region, revived Dōwa projects on a small scale from 1946 onwards. In 1951, the "All Romance Incident," involving a discriminatory story published in a
pulp fiction magazine set in a Kyoto
buraku, galvanized the BNLC to shift its focus. The campaign linked the discrimination in the story to the poor living conditions of the community and demanded that the government take administrative action to resolve the
buraku issue. This marked the beginning of a new strategy focused on (administration struggles). The movement's new militancy was demonstrated in incidents like the 1952 Nishikawa Affair, where a prefectural assemblyman in
Wakayama was forced to resign after making discriminatory remarks. In 1955, the BNLC changed its name to the
Buraku Liberation League (, , or BLL). Growing pressure from the BLL and its political allies in the
Japan Socialist Party, including a "Grand March of Liberation" to Tokyo in 1961, led the government to establish the Dōwa Policy Advisory Council (). The government's concession was partly motivated by a desire to weaken the BLL's commitment to the widespread anti–
US-Japan Security Treaty protest movement of the time. In 1965, the council submitted a landmark report (known as the ) that acknowledged for the first time that the resolution of the
buraku problem was a "responsibility of the state." The report defined
buraku discrimination as an infringement of civil rights, rejected theories of racial difference or feudal remnants, and focused on improving the poor living environments of
buraku communities as the key to solving the problem. This led to the enactment of the Special Measures Law for Dōwa Projects in 1969. Over the next thirty-three years, this law and its successors funnelled significant government funds—a total of around ¥15 trillion—into "Dōwa projects" aimed at improving housing, infrastructure, and living standards in designated
buraku districts. The projects dramatically transformed the physical environment of many communities and significantly improved educational outcomes, with high school matriculation rates for
buraku youth rising by nearly 35 percent in some prefectures between 1969 and 2002. However, the law was a time-limited measure, not the permanent Human Rights Basic Law that the BLL had campaigned for. The projects also created a new "official boundary" by formally designating areas as , which some argued reinforced stigma. It is estimated that around 1,000
buraku communities chose not to register as , wanting to avoid the negative attention that could come from explicitly declaring themselves
burakumin. During this period, the BLL grew into a powerful national movement. The
Sayama Incident, a murder case from 1963 in which a
buraku man, Kazuo Ishikawa, was convicted, became a major focus of the BLL's activism from the late 1960s, with the league arguing it was a case of discriminatory investigation and a miscarriage of justice. In 1975, the discovery of the , illegally compiled address lists of
buraku communities being sold to companies for use in discriminatory hiring practices, brought the issue of employment discrimination to national attention. However, it was also marked by internal conflict, particularly with the
Japan Communist Party (JCP) over ideology and tactics. The JCP criticized the Dōwa projects for separating
burakumin from the wider working-class movement and alleged that the BLL's control over the allocation of Dōwa funds (the or "Single Window" strategy) was exclusionary and undemocratic. This conflict culminated in violent denunciation struggles, such as the Yata incident (1969) and the Yoka High School incident (1974), where BLL members physically assaulted teachers affiliated with the Communist Party. This led to a split in the movement. In 1976, the JCP-aligned faction formed a separate organization, the Zenkoku Buraku Kaiho Undo Rengokai (National Buraku Liberation Movement Alliance, or Zenkairen). The implementation of the Dōwa projects was accompanied by persistent accusations of corruption and misuse of funds. Critics, particularly the JCP and Zenkairen, alleged that the BLL used its influence over local governments to secure kickbacks from construction contracts and channel funds to its members and affiliated businesses. While some level of corruption was endemic to Japan's "construction state", where close ties between politicians, bureaucrats, and local construction firms were common, several high-profile scandals specifically involved Dōwa projects. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, scandals in
Kitakyushu and
Kyoto led to investigations into the misuse of funds by local leaders of both the BLL and the conservative Zen Nihon Dōwakai. The most significant case was the Asuka-kai incident in
Osaka, which came to light in 2006. The head of a BLL branch and a
non-profit organization, Konishi Nobuhiko, was arrested for embezzling vast sums from public funds meant for Dōwa construction projects. The scandal also involved a major bank (the future
Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ) that had provided unsecured loans to Konishi's organization under pressure, and had links to
yakuza figures. A parallel issue was the rise of fraudulent ("fake Dōwa") groups, which were often fronts for organized crime. These groups would extort money from companies by threatening to publicly denounce them for alleged acts of discrimination, capitalizing on the mainstream population's fear of being associated with the
buraku issue. == Contemporary situation ==