 is an outcast group at the bottom of the japanese social order that has historically been the victim of severe discrimination and ostracism. they were originally members of outcast communities in the japanese feudal era, composed of those with occupations considered impure or tainted by death (such as executioners, undertakers, workers in slaughterhouses, butchers or tanners), which have severe social stigmas of kegare ( or "defilement") attached to them. traditionally, the burakumin lived in their own hamlets or ghettos. ==terminology== the term  buraku literally refers to a small, generally rural, commune or a hamlet. people from regions of japan where "discriminated communities" no longer exist (e.g. anywhere north of tokyo) may refer to any hamlet as a buraku, indicating the word's use is not necessarily pejorative. historically the term was used for an outcaste community that was heavily discriminated against officially and formally. {| class="wikitable" |+terms !romaji !kanji !meaning !annotation |- |hisabetsu-buraku | |discriminated community/hamlet |is a commonly used, politically correct term, with people from them called hisabetsu-burakumin ( "discriminated community (hamlet) people") or hisabetsu buraku shusshin-sha ( "person from a discriminated community / hamlet"). |- |burakumin | |hamlet people |is either hamlet people per se or an abbreviation of people from discriminated community/hamlet. very old people tend to use the word in the former meaning. its use is sometimes frowned upon, though it is by far the most commonly used term in english. |- |mikaihÅ-buraku | |unliberated communities |is a term sometimes used by human rights pressure groups and has a degree of political meaning to it. |- |tokushu buraku | |special hamlets |was used in the early 20th century but is now considered inappropriate. |} a widely used term for buraku settlements is dÅwa chiku ( "assimilation districts"), an official term for districts designated for government and local authority assimilation projects. the social issue surrounding "discriminated communities" is usually referred to as dÅwa mondai ( "assimilation issues") or less commonly, buraku mondai ("hamlet issues"). in the feudal era, the outcaste were called eta (, literally, "an abundance of defilement" or "an abundance of
Demographics_of_Japan Discrimination_in_Japan Feudal_Japan Human_rights_in_Japan Injustice Japanese_society Japanese_values Japanese_words_and_phrases Social_history_of_Japan