But they have become literate through their participation in the liberation movement which has contributed to their own empowerment. In the economic life, Buraku people are the ones who lose their jobs first in times of recession. Many of Buraku people do not receive sufficient social security such as pension. Ms. Kishida reported that another area of serious discrimination is marriage. Even today, there are many Buraku women who face barriers to marrying non-Buraku men due to opposition from the family of the men just because they are from Buraku.
Some women do take their own lives.
However, Ms. Kishida said, the official human rights protection system cannot provide any effective measure against such discrimination. The participation of minority women in the decision-making within minority organizations is also insufficient. There is a need to advance exchange and networking among women from different minority groups. Ms. Lee Youngnyo spoke about the situation of Korean women in Japan. Koreans in Japan do not have voting rights, and their right to choose occupation is restricted because they do not have Japanese nationality.