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Educational Demands and Institutional Response: Dowa Education in Japan

Education, as a major channel and access to social and institutional roles in Japan, is well documented.' In fact, the very preponderance of formal educational credentials as a prerequisite for success in Japanese social and economic life has been singled out as a source of extreme dysfunction in Japanese society.2 Yet, it remains a fact that access to education and especially certain selected sectors and institutions in Japan's educational structure is a sought-after goal of most Japanese families regardless of social class, geographic origin, and, as we shall see, caste status. The study that follows was conducted in Japan and concentrated on the political organizations and educational demands of a persistently isolated and discriminated-against group, the burakumin. Termed "Japan's invisible race" by Wagatsuma and DeVos, this group remains today, in many respects, a discrete subgroup in Japanese society, outside the pale of the majority and as such lacking the social and institutional connections so vital to individual mobility.3 Although official policy prohibits discrimination against this group or any other, and although the educational system is theoretically open to all, statistically, the burakumin have not participated and been represented in the upper levels of Japanese education and have consistently been the underachievers at the lower levels (as well as problem students, dropouts, etc., at least as identified by Japanese educational authorities). For this and a variety of other reasons, there is a fairly long history of active political organization and mobilization of burakumin to gain access to preferred institutions in Japanese society and to seek an end to official