barakumin

Noun

burakumin (plural burakumins or burakumin)

1. A member of a Japanese social minority group, descendants of feudal-era outcasts.
   • Since the early twentieth century, the burakumin have had strong liberation movements that have won many concessions for the group, but which have also, through their sometimes quite violent activism, further alienated many mainstream Japanese.2003, Colin Mackerras, Ethnicity in Asia, page 52