Reported by Jake Weber

ALBION, Mich. – The nature of discrimination in a “color-blind” society like Japan is the fascinating topic for Michigan State University scholar John Davis, who discusses the Japanese phenomenon of “buraku” on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at 4 p.m. in Albion College’s Bobbitt Auditorium.

“In the United States, discrimination is visually based in issues of race and culture,” explained Midori Yoshii, international studies professor at Albion. “But in Japan, everyone looks the same -- so how does discrimination happen? This is an interesting idea for Americans.”

“Buraku” literally means “hamlet” or “village,” and refers to settlements in feudal Japan where societal outcasts lived. Japan’s traditional Buddhist society idealized respect for all life, so shoemakers and leather workers, who killed animals for a living, were seen as “unclean.” “Because of Japan’s current registration system, people can recognize you as a descendant of ‘buraku’ and that can lead to many forms of discrimination even today,” said Yoshii.

Presenter John Davis, assistant professor of anthropology, at Michigan State University, studies “buraku” as part of a growing human rights movement in Western Japan.

This presentation is sponsored jointly by the International Studies, Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies programs at Albion College, and is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Yoshii at 517/629-0587 or myoshii@albion.edu.

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