Understanding of Modern Buraku History...

Minderheiten in Japan: Ainu, Buraku, Ryukyu people, Koreans
Source: The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 19 | Issue 9 | Number 5 | Article ID 5594 | May 01, 2021
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Issues in Ramseyer’s Understanding of Modern Buraku History and the Suiheisha
M.Ramseyer の近代部落史および水平社理解の問題点

Asaji Takeshi and Hirooka Kiyonobu
Translation by Ian Neary

In March 2020, we wrote this paper inIn March 2020, we wrote this paper inresponse to discussion paper No.964, “On The Invention of Identity Politics: The Buraku Outcaste in Japan”, June 20, 2018, written by J.Mark Ramseyer (JMR), which was released on the website of Harvard’s John M. Olin Centerfor Law, Economics, and Business.

We understand that after that a new version was published in the Review of Law andEconomics, Volume 16 Issue 2, 2020, with the same title, However, we regard these two asessentially similar, so we are releasing this report critical of the former version.

Introduction
There is a wide range of problematic issues in this work by JMR. In particular, the method can only be described as using strained interpretations of references to previous research and erroneous use of proper nouns. However we will focus here on key points of his historical research, especially modern history and the Suiheisha (水平社).

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