Buraku invisibility and policy making

focus on the trends of Buraku becomingdenizens and denizenship

Abstract

In this paper, we considered the trajectory of the Dowa policy from the viewpoint

of the（ historic） development of citizenship and consideration of the issue

of the consciousness of the problem of the discriminated community the Buraku

（hereafter, Buraku）. The investigation data led to the following conclusions.

Firstly, that the series of Buraku policies from prewar up to the Dowa policy

sought to guarantee denizenship; secondly, the series of policies aimed at denizenship

was conducive to making the Buraku invisible. Thirdly, the Dowa policy

aimed at guaranteeing the Buraku denizenship did not guarantee social rights

such as “equality of outcomes”. Ensuring social rights for the Buraku were essentially

left to the local community. By essentially creating boundaries between

people, the Dowa policies developed by the welfare state have only succeeded

in turning the Buraku into denizens. In other words, it was never a policy intended

to recognize the value of Buraku in the labor force and guarantee them

citizenship.

　In addition, along with the spread of neoliberal policies （and its flipside,

neo-conservatism） and the resulting regression of local governments, the opportunities

for Buraku to become regular employees are not only lost, the situation

of denizenship can even be considered dangerous for the Buraku. For both civil

republic citizenship and liberal citizenship, the duty to the Buraku（ mutual aid）

in the community is unduly emphasized （communitarianism）, and this results

in a net reduction in welfare in terms of human rights; in other words, citizenship.