Japan: Street View and the Burakumin

The Internet, many would argue, has created the possibility for anyone to express their opinions freely without having to belong to a category of people with the “legitimacy to speak” (i.e. journalists, scholars, etc.). Recently, however, some have worried about an increase in the number of racist and denigrative comments against minorities spreading across the web.

In Japan, for example, the advent of Google's new Street View service [GSV], aside from arousing indignation among some and sparking debates over privacy issues among others, has also led some bloggers to discuss the relationship between areas photographed in GSV and the so-called hisabetsu buraku (被差別部落). The hisabetsu buraku are discriminated hamlets inhabited by people who, for many centuries and over many generations, have carried the burden of doing the “tainted jobs” (butchers, executioners etc.). These burakumin (部落民) [hamlet people] resemble the Dalits [the untouchables], the lowest caste in the south-east Asian Hindu system, both formally abolished under modern constitutional systems but continuing their existence through prejudice in the minds of many people.

The first to raise questions regarding the topic of Google Street View and discrimination was Manabu Kitaguchi [北口学] at Journalist-Net, a journalist, expert in human rights and president of the Japan Journalists Association for Human Rights (日本人権ジャーナリスト会):

米国でプライバシーと人権問題の議論が湧き上がったGoogleストリートビュのサービスは、欧州でのサービス開始を前に多くの人権NGOの反対によってストップが賭けられている。が、メディアや市民のなんの論議もなく日本ではサービスがスタートしてしまった。日本固有の差別問題に対する影響力、特に巨大掲示板で面白おかしく差別扇動の書き込みをする人達は、サービス開始直後から「ハイテク電子地名総鑑」というスレッドを立ち上げ、被差別地域の画像をどんどん書き込みしている。

In the U.S., debates about privacy and human rights sprang up after the launch of Google's new service, Street View, and in Europe many human rights NGOs opposed its launch. However, in Japan, where there is no debate between citizens and media, the service was launched and it had a big impact on the Japanese problem of discrimination. In particular, following the launch [of the service], there was an increase in the number of people leaving anonymous messages on online bulletin boards instigating discrimination and threads with titles of “high-tech area names list” [in reference to the infamous “List of Buraku Area Names”, see Wikipedia article for details], together with identification of the discriminated areas [through the use of Google's images]

[…]

Google社は、日本という固有の差別問題を有する国での安易なサービス開始で、大きな問題を巻き起こしているサービスをはじめた。早急に日本国内の人権団体との対話やヒヤリングを行なうべきであると考える。心に痛みを感じる人々に向き合って自社サービスの影響を被害者当事者から聞く姿勢が「正義」であると私は思えてならない。

With the launch of this easy-to-use service in a country with endemic discrimination issues, Google has started a service that is giving rise to major problems. The company should, I think, initiate a dialogue with Japanese human rights groups and hold public hearings. I cannot help feeling that the “righteous” attitude here is to face the people who have been hurt and make efforts to listen to those parties that have fallen victim to the influence of this service.

Another blogger, Nobuo Sakiyama [崎山伸夫], became interested in the issue and expressed his opinion about Kitaguchi's entry at his blog:

気になりつづけている空白地帯問題だが、最初は1ヶ所だけしか認識していなかった大規模被差別部落との相関について、私自身は土地勘がまったくない都市だが空白地帯のいくつかについて調べると、そこもまた被差別部落の地名として著名、といった状況があることがわかった。ただ、空白地帯とそうでない部分の境界と部落との関係がどこまで密接なのか、というのは、さすがに簡単にわかる公開資料程度では分からない。

On this issue of the areas not covered [in Street View], which continues to draw attention, I did a bit of investigating on the blanked-out zones [in GSV] and their connection with large-scale burakumin areas, a topic about which I have no familiarity — at first I only knew of one such place. It turns out that those uncovered areas correspond to places well-known for the presence of discriminated communities. However, the borderline between the blanked-out zones and the areas that are not blanked out is very subtle and, of course, no data about this matter has ever been released.

[…]

ということで、一般にも著名な部落問題の研究者(誰なのかは少なくとも今のところは伏せる)に、本件についてご意見を伺うべく、問い合わせのメールを出してみた。まったく面識がない方なので、どういうことになるかは分からないが。個人的には、本件(Googleストリートビューと部落差別の関係)については「部落差別問題へ取り組むことを主要な関心としているわけではない私が被差別部落の正確な場所について詳しくなることが適切とは思えない」という事情により、今回連絡をとった研究者の方や、あるいは北口氏のような専門性の高いジャーナリストの方に引き取ってもらって撤退したいと考えている。

So I decided to ask the opinion of a well-known researcher on the topic of discriminated communities (I prefer not to reveal his name at the moment) to get their thoughts on this issue. I wrote [this researcher] an email, stating my personal opinion (regarding the relationship between Google Street View and discrimination against some specific communities) that, “Although tackling issues concerning the buraku discrimination problem is not my main interest, I do not however think that it is appropriate for the location of those discriminated communities to become known.” As the matter has now been taken up by the scholar I contacted, as well as the journalist Mr. Kitaguchi, I am now considering withdrawing from this debate.

最後に、私の見込みが当たっているという仮定でのこの問題についての意見だけれども、Googleストリートビューが仮に存続しつづけるとした場合、公開範囲は大幅に制限する必要があるだろうし、また、サポート範囲の道路の縁取りもやめるべきだと思う。

Lastly, if my supposition regarding this issue proves to be correct, in the case that Google Street View continues to exist, I suppose that it will become necessary to restrict their coverage of a wide range of areas, and I also think that they should stop their coverage of surrounding support roads.

[…]

追記: 上記の著名な研究者から返事を頂いた。それによると、当該都市のストリートビューで部落を識別できる状況にはないとのこと。中途半端に知られている地名で余計な心配をしてしまったのかもしれない。

p.s.: I got a reply from the scholar mentioned above, according to whom there is nothing that would lead to discrimination of communities in the Street View coverage of the city in question. I guess I just got overly worried because of my lack of knowledge about the place names.

Kitaguchi posted a reply to Sakiyama:

研究者のおっしゃるようにGoogleストリートビューの公開情報には「このエリアが被差別部落地域」という表示はありません。しかしながら別サイトで山のような差別書き込み、ストリートビュー画像URLが膨大な分量で公開され過去ログも蓄積されています。Googleストリートビューの機能を活用し、ストリートビューのサイトを指し示し閲覧を促すという事実が多数見受けられます。そのようなスレッドが継続して行るという現状の悲惨さは現実問題として進行しているわけです。

As the scholar says, the information published by Google Street View does not indicate that “this is a discriminated area”. However, on other sites there are many discriminatory comments, and URLs to images on Street View have accumulated in huge numbers in older blogs. It is a matter of fact that many of those blogs urge [people] to use Google Street View's functions and refer to it. And the horrible thing is that these threads continue to be written, and this miserable situation will not stop.

For more on this issue, see an earlier post about the so-called “blanked-out zones” [空白地帯] of Japan not shown in Street View.

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