[Maybe we can think of a better title!]
1. Introduction
Through this seminar, I studied about diversity and inequality in Japan researched about Burakumin and minorities in Japanese compaies in the 1st semester and people in poverty and one parent families in the second semester. The reason why get interesetd in that topics is I imgined about Burakumin at first. I have little idea about diversity and equallity issues in Japan. But I know about Burakumin because I studied it on Japanese history when I was high school. And I joined this zemi, I noticed there are many people suffering from minority issues. So in this report, I discuss the situation of various minority groups in Japan, and I want to consider characteristic of Japanese people, and find the reason why general people tend to discriminate to minority people.
2. Burakumin
Burakumin are a traditional discriminated group in Japan. It is said that the origin of Burakumin is former Japanese slaves (Eta and Hinin who were outcaste groups). They worked as leatherworkers, caretakers of the dead and tombs, and butchers. at that time, people regarded thier workers as humbles. So, people discriminated them. They are instructed where to live, and they are restricted marry. After Edo period, " 解放令”carried out.This law means disappearing of 'eta' and 'hinin' .But people had deep conscious of discrimination. So, discrimination and prejudice for them didn't disappear.In the Showa Period , they lived in Dowa areas, which were different from common areas for other Japanese people.In the modern age, discrimination against burakumin has been
decreasing , but there was still intense discrimination against burakumin in some areas. For example, there were marriage and employment problems. Burakumin were not permitted to marry other people . And their family background was checked when they applied for jobs. If their identity become clear, their informal decision were cancel. this is so mess discrimination, I think. [Also give sources for this information and link to them.] In 1987 [I think the government undertook these measures over a long period of time actually], Japanese government carried out Dowa area measures [such as...?]. As
the result, the notion and bias against Burakumin were dissolved a
little. [Can you explain how and why?]
3. Minorities in Japanese Companies
There are many kind of minority in Japanese company and I researched the situation of women and LGBT people. [Mike: You could give some background information here from your cycle 2 presentation about the culture of Japanese companies and how this limits diversity. In your presentation you mentions and explained three issues: No flexibility, Exclusive mood and the theory of the worker.]
A. Women
Japanese company has little women manager. Only 11.1% of managerial
class is women. This rate ranks 97th among ILO’s countries as the graph shows.Japanese Prime Minister Abe declared that Japanese company have to raise the ratio of women manager to 30% by 2020. And he administers some measures to achieve that. [This section is very short so please give some more information here either about the problem of gender inequality in Japanese companies or the measures being taken to change this and how effective they seem to be.] [Also give referecnes and links to them]B. LGBT PeopleLGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) people find it hard to seek jobs because they are likely to be the target of discrimination. According to statistics, 40% of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people and 70% of Transgender people feel difficulties when they seek jobs.These are some problems they face when do job hunting:They feel uneasy they will not be accepted if they come out as LGBT.
They can’t start seeking jobs because they conflict whether they should behave men or women [I can't really understand this. Is this an issue for transgender people, not lesbian, gay and bisexual people?].
Even after they get jobs, they face some issues:
discriminatory behavior [for example....]
depression [why and what effects does this have?]
excretory disorder [what does this mean? Is this a problem with using gender-specific toilets in companies?] etc…
Of course, some company prepare measures for recruiting LGBT people [such as....], but it is also true that there is still huge prejudice and discrimination in companies.
[Mike: you had quite a lot of information in your presentation for cycle 2 on LGBT people in companies so could you add some more of that to this section? For example of what action Starbucks have taken in japan or the work of NPOs like Nijiiro Diversity] [Also give references for sources of information and links to them.]
4. People in Poverty, Child Poverty and One-Parent Familes
I thought there is no poverty in Japan. When we have a look at Japanese economic situation, it seems that Japan has nothing to do with poverty problem. But according to OECD's research, the rate of Japanese relative poverty is large. In some developed countries, the notion of ‘relative poverty ’ is used. In the OECD's data about relative poverty,Japan is 7th of 35 developed country. [Can you explain what relative poverty is, how it differes from absolute poverty and how it is relevant to the Japanese situation?]. According to the data by the Ministry of Health, over 20 millions people are poor [in relative poverty?] in Japan (see the graph below).
[Maybe add some information about the causes of poverty from your presentation and discussion report]
What is the cause of poverty in Japan? Japanese people often say that poverty problem is due to person. But this is incorrect. I think this problem occurs the change of how to work. Before 40 years, Japanese company guaranteed lifelong employment. The disappear of it is mainly reason for current poverty problem. Another reason is that people nursing for parents injure themselves.
And I researched about vicious cycle of poverty people. Once people get into poverty, they are hard to make their lives general, because of the lack of social insurance. They continue to be poverty for long time.
As the graph above shows, when the rate of relative poverty increases, the rate of children in
poverty increase, too. Now, it is said that one out of six children in Japan suffer from poverty. While the average rate of OECD's children poverty is 12.1％, the rate of Japan is 14.3％ (see graph on the left. The poverty rate of Japan is so serious compared to other developed countries.Children's poverty leads to a vicious cycle, and it becomes hard for them to escape from poverty. [Can you explain a bit more about this poverty cycle?]
[Also it would be good to explain more the situation on of one-parent families, many of which are in poverty, as these are areas you covered in your 3rd and 4th presentations.You can use the information below from your research journals]
The number of one parent families in Japan reached 146millions in 2010, according to national census. And about 54.6％ families of them suffered from poverty, it means 78millions of one-parent family correspond poverty. According to the data which was shown by ministry of health, divorce is main reason of becoming one-parent family. This reason accounts for 89.6％. I wondered why Japanese couple divorce so high. I found three big reasons. It is domestic violence (DV), having an affair, and disagreement of personality. I'm surprised that disagreement ranked first.
And I researched about the issue of one parent family. As I thought at first, poverty is so serious problem. Especially, single mother's family suffers from poor, because they tend not to have work or requirement. On the other hand, single father's family tend to be poor mentally point. It is true that single fathers have work, but they are hard to do household cshores, communicate with their children and neighbourhood. So, they are easy to get mentally depression. [Give references and link to them for information in this section].
[It would also be good to discuss some of the organisations working to help people in poverty in Japan and some measures to reduce poverty including child poverty and poverty for one-parent families, using information from your presentations.]
5. The Cause of Discrimination and Prejudice for Minority People
I think Japanese people tend to dislike ‘different’ people. ‘Different’ means skin colors, romantic objection [what is this/], and alien value. So Japanese people treat different skin people as ‘foreigner’, people who come to like same sex as ‘LGBT’, and people who lives
minimum standard as ‘poor’. General Japanese people like stereotype. Such thinking causes discrimination and prejudice, I think. [Can you develop this idea and explain it a bit more, maybe with some specific examples?]
6. What is the Solution?
I think there are two possible solutions for this problem. First solution is forgetting the truth of discrimination. Now, there is little discrimination for Burakumin. It is because former generations didn’t tell the detail of Burakumin and Dowa area to their children. In
Kochi prefecture there is a motto ‘寝た子を起こすな’. This means that you mustn’t tell the truth of discrimination. And they think that discrimination will disappear if they follow the motto. I think this method has some reasonable point, but has some fault, too. First point is that discriminated people isn’t able to agree to this way. [Hiding their identity, or 'passing' as 'mainstream' Japanese may be very difficult, stressful, or mentally painful for some people in minority communities. And some people in these communities may want to express their identity, for example as Burakumin, or come out as gay or lesbian.] Second point is that new generations may know the fact of discrimination by some kinds of means, like internet, SNS, or BBS. So, doing this method is not good, I think.
Second solution is some integrated theory [why do you call it integrated theory? Who or what should be integrated into/with what?]. For instance, LGBT, some local government (including Shibuya and Setagaya) have accepted same sex partner ships and issue certificates for these. If these approaches are carried out by all government in Japan, the consciousness of
discrimination will fade gradually, I think. [Mike: This discussion of possible solutions is very interesting and your critique of solution one above is very clear. Can you explain a bit more why you think solution two is a good approach and how that might be made to work in Japan?]
7. Conclusion
I researched Japanese diversity and inequality through this seminar. I noticed that there are many forms of discrimination and inequality (including gender gap, poverty gap). It is said that Japan has most inequality points in developed countries [give reference and link]. Solving some discrimination issues and correcting wealth and gender gap is essential for Japanese future.
8. References
[Please add the other references to this list, develop the references by adding links like the example below, and also include the sources in the text above with links]
管理職女性の国際比較, 社会実情データ図録 Honkawa Data Tribune
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/seisakunitsuite/soshiki/toukei/tp151218-
01.html 厚生労働省 日本の貧困率の推移
http://diamond.jp/articles/-/73673?page=3 日本人が自覚していな
い根深い「差別」の意識
http://www.huffingtonpost.jp/jcej/post_7747_b_5443210.html
「書き捨て」られる苦しみ 部落差別は眠らない