The term buraku literally refers to a small, generally rural, hamlet. Burakumin are a Japanese social minority group: Japan’s “invisible race.” No physical characteristics distinguish them, unlike other main minority groups, from the majority population. There are about six million burakumin in modern Japan (about 2 per cent of the population).

Untouchability in East Asia

Apart from India, Nepal and Pakistan, at least four other Asian countries are tainted by the practice of untouchability. Thus we see that communities of untouchables exist, though rarely talked about, in Japan, Korea, Burma and even Tibet. While Japan is a moderate exception, not much data is available about the life style and conditions of the untouchables in the other three countries. However, be it the para-gyoon (the Pagoda slaves of old Burma), the Paekchong of Korea, the Ragyapa of Tibet or the Burakumin of Japan, we find here, as we find elsewhere in Nigeria (see page 18) or in medieval Europe (see page 21) dirty, ugly, lazy and dishonest. The untouchable is sub-human, has to be shunned and should be cast out of society.

Over half the world's population depends on rice as their staple food. In Asia alone, over 2 billion people receive nearly 70% of their calories from rice and its products. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, has launched The International Year of Rice. It is a major effort to spotlight a vitally important commodity whose production is failing to keep up with population growth.