Zhou Feifei, The Transformation of the Discriminated Community in Modern Japan

　　After the Meiji Restoration, individuals with low status in ancient Japan, which can be included in the discriminated community (Burakumin), faced great revolution in their status during the establishment of the centralized state in modern emperor system which endowed them with equal legal status. Under the ideological Ikkunbanmin ron and the policies of the Meiji government which aimed at unifying people's national and community consciousness, the discriminated community were mobilized into the industrial production and even wartime systems. The collision between the free civil rights movement and the Social Darwinism and the ethnographic research based on anthropology was reflected in the elite discourse debates focusing on the ‘ethnicity’ of tribal peoples. Among the ordinary Japanese people, the discrimination toward the discriminated community can be observed in the opinions of nation, hygiene, region and social classes. It can be said that such discrimination has been reconstructed in modern times. Therefore, the discriminated community as others in the Japanese society chose either revolution or compromise. Changes in their status, occupations, as well as identities, reflect the construction of Japan as a modern nation. The issue regarding the discriminated community continues to the present, confirming the heterogeneity and diversity of the Japanese society, as well as the ‘remaining roots’ of discrimination.