ECONOMIC PROBLEMS RISE TO THE SURFACE

THE WORLD ECONOMIC crisis began in 1929 in the USA, spread to Japan the following year and would last until around 1934. This long-lasting, severe economic crisis is referred to in Japan as the Shōwa Economic Crisis. A movement for the economic revival of agricultural and fishing villages developed nationally and even residents of discriminated Buraku communities were mobilized to take part in activities aimed at overcoming the impact of this economic crisis.

The impact of the Shōwa Economic Crisis was particularly serious within discriminated Buraku communities whose economic foundations were already very vulnerable and it exacerbated the difficulties that they were encountering. According to a survey carried by the Yūwa Association in November 1929, the average amount of tax paid by households in Buraku communities was between ¥3 and ¥8 whereas the average in farming villages as a whole was around ¥20 which suggests a huge gap existed between Buraku and non-Buraku household incomes at this time. Footwear manufacture had been the main industry within Buraku communities but it was in decline. Moreover, since it was not possible for former shoe makers to acquire land to take up farming in its place the only alternative for many was emigration to Hokkaido or one of the colonies. Dependence on highly unstable seasonal labour was widespread (Yamamoto Masao, ‘Buraku Keizai Mondai no Sobyō’, Yūwa Jigyō Kenkyū Dai 11go July 1930).

In these circumstances the argument outlined earlier within the Yūwa Association that a moral movement was all that was needed to eliminate discrimination and that special policies were not required inevitably fell temporarily into the background. Already there was general agreement that without some kind of unusual and special policy it would not be possible to bridge the economic gap that was emerging between the Buraku and non- Buraku communities. It had been agreed within the Yūwa Association to address the new situation with the ‘new awakening’ policy mentioned in chapter 14 but even chairman Hiranuma who hitherto had insisted on addressing the Buraku problem only as a moral issue had started to say things like, ‘I think that if we do not address this situation within which their industries and economic situation are at a standstill, the accomplishment of all the other aims of our project will be extremely difficult’ (Yūwa Jigyō Kenkyū Vol 11).