Abstract
Kagawa prefecture has 48 outcast communities (buraku), some of which are situated in small islands like Shozu island. All of those buraku are densely populated, because of the relatively big size of population and household in a small-sized area, and left to be below standard in every aspect of living, from housing, to other living environments, working conditions and education. In Shozu island which has no important local industries except soy browing industry, many male-adults have been at work mainly in Osaka, Kobe and their surrounding areas and sometimes moved out there with their family, even before the W.W. II. Under the recent population trend of Kagawa prefecture which has been rapidly loosing polulation, Uchinomi-cho (town), situated in an eastern part of the island, has been also loosing about 15% of its population, especially its male population, for the last 10 years. But two buraku, Kusakabe-minami and Tachibana, with which I will deal in the study, have grown in population and household. It can be said a peculiar phenomenon that only buraku have been overpopulated under the general trend of underpopulation in Kagawa prefecture as a whole. For example, in a usual community contiguous to Tachibana buraku, many of those who sojourned in other industrial areas for work got settled in those places and the number of family in the village has been changed little for the last 80 years ; from 129 houses at the end of 21 year of the Meiji Era to 126 households at the time of our research. On the other hand, in the two buraku, the number of family has increased five times ; from 22 houses at the end of 21 year of the Meiji Era to 111 households at the time of our research. This shows the situation in which many of the collateral families, which have been produced from the frequent segmentation of original households, have been obliged to stay in buraku, as they were not able “to move out as a whole household” (“kyoka-rison” in Japanese).Because of this situation, the economic basis of buraku, already weakened by the fact mentioned above, has been demolished and the low standard of living has been lowered further. The employment pattern of buraku residents shows temporal and unstable working conditions, compared with that of usual community residents. The main jobs for male-adults of buraku are constructive works in Kusakabe-minami and fishing works as well as sailors' of small means of conveyance in Tachibana. On the other hand, in usual surrounding communities, many male-adults work as small independent fishermen and as seamen of ocean routes. There is also a big difference in working days and income between buraku and usual communities.Now I will briefly descrive the research strategies of our field work which has been done in two outcast communities in Uchinomi-cho and Tachibana usual community contiguous to them. Firstly, I would like to clarify what kind of distortion the discrimination against buraku has given to the employment structure and population trend of buraku in an island. Secondly, I would like to point out some causes which prevent outcast community members of an isolated from free employment and working in urban industrial communities. Generally speaking of the recent socioeconomic situation in Japan, urban industrial communities are keenly lacking in labor force on the one hand and rural communities are forced to be underpopulated, because many members sojourn in urban areas for work and move out from the village as a whole household on the other hand.
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