ABSTRACT
The descendants of people historically involved in animal processing have long been discriminated against in Japan, this being regarded as the “dark” side of Japanese history. Such discrimination is rarely seen in societies that introduced livestock farming along with agriculture, nor among nomads, where people often encounter the death of livestock. This discrimination is partly because Japan did not introduce systematic animal husbandry and cattle breeding (Sahara 1993), and the lack of familiarity with large livestock must have influenced people’s “perspective” toward those who dealt with them. Nevertheless, I do not think this is enough to explain the structure of this form of discrimination, which is unique to Japanese society, as Japan is not the only country that did not introduce systematic animal husbandry. Moreover, as described below, there is a gap of over 400 years between the introduction of cattle and horses and the emergence of such discrimination in Japan.
