Google Earth Raises Discrimination Issue In Japan 457
Hugh Pickens writes "The Times (UK) reports that by allowing old maps to be overlaid on satellite images of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, Google has unwittingly created a visual tool that has prolonged an ancient discrimination, says a lobbying group established to protect the human rights of three million burakumin, members of the sub-class condemned by the old feudal system in Japan to unclean jobs associated with death and dirt. 'We tend to think of maps as factual, like a satellite picture, but maps are never neutral, they always have a certain point of view,' says David Rumsey, a US map collector. Some Japanese companies actively screen out burakumin-linked job seekers, and some families hire private investigators to dig into the ancestry of fiances to make sure there is no burakumin taint. Because there is nothing physical to differentiate burakumin from other Japanese and because there are no clues in their names or accent, the only way of establishing whether or not they are burakumin is by tracing their family. By publishing the locations of burakumin ghettos with the modern street maps, the quest to trace ancestry is made easier, says Toru Matsuoka, an opposition MP and member of the Buraku Liberation League. Under pressure to diffuse criticism, Google has asked the owners of the woodblock print maps to remove the legend that identifies the ghetto with an old term, extremely offensive in modern usage, that translates loosely as 'scum town.' 'We had not acknowledged the seriousness of the map, but we do take this matter seriously,' says Yoshito Funabashi, a Google spokesman." The ancient Japanese caste system was made illegal 150 years ago, but silent discrimination remains. The issue is complicated by allegations of mob connections in the burakumin anti-discrimination organizations.
All look same to me (Score:2, Funny)
Is there anything physical to differentiate any Japanese from any other Japanese?
We need a google map to show us (Score:5, Funny)
"Companies and governments from elsewhere could check whether this practice is occurring, and blacklist Japanese companies that are shown to practice this human-rights violation."
It would be much easier to do this if there was a Google map to show us who we should discriminate against.
Kinda like TRAILER PARKs today (Score:5, Funny)
What with all the white trash that inhabits them. I'm all for integration, but I stop short on trailer/white trash. Call me an anti-trailer trash bigot, but that's how I was learned, and I growed up on this way of thinking. They be in the trailer parks, and that's where they should stay, them and their children's children's children.
Re:How does this help discrimination? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The cost of freedom (Score:5, Funny)
That's what my High School US History teacher used to say.
Re:Definitely irrelevant (Score:1, Funny)
have a problem with discrimination . . . not the United States
BAHAHAHAHA!
*snrk*
*snort*
Oh god!
HAHAHAHAHA!
Actually we Americans are trying to perform (Score:5, Funny)
Humanitarian Aid to all countries. We are reducing the number
of extra vowels used by many English speaking countries in
their spelling, and are saving them up for an air drop over
Poland, a country which is in desperate need of vowels.
Who says America does not care?
Re:Actually we Americans are trying to perform (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Definitely irrelevant (Score:2, Funny)
Thank you Gaijin for telling Japan how they should live, and view the world. You Gaijin always believe you are always so "rightious" and so arrogant in your "morality " and "thinking" never realizing that noone asked for it. We do not care for it - that is right, you are not that special or superior in your thinking. You do not understand, yet you are so quick in criticizing others. Americans are the biggest hypocrites in the world - yet the have no trouble telling everyone how they should live their lifes, while you kill, maim, detroy all those who are different,weaker, and poorer than you. Yet you kowtow to the biggest dictatorships in the world China, and one of the worst human right country in the world, Saudi Arabia. So please - stop talking about things you do not understand - and really stop telling other cultures how they should be.
Carb Relief (Score:3, Funny)