A koseki (戸籍) or family register is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households to make notifications of their vital records to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese citizens within their jurisdiction.
Reproduction of a koseki certificate printout
Cover of the Register of Imperial Lineage (Kōzokufu) that handle the current imperial reign (126th emperor)
Burakumin is a term for ethnic Japanese people who are believed to be descended from members of the pre-Meiji feudal class which were associated with kegare , such as executioners, undertakers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, and tanners. The term encompasses both the historical eta and hinin outcasts.
During Japan's feudal era, these occupations acquired a hereditary status of oppression, and became an unofficial class of the Tokugawa class system during the Edo period. After the feudal system was abolished, the term burakumin came into use to refer to the former caste members and their descendants, who continued to experience stigmatization and discrimination.
The most famous official of the Buraku Liberation League, Jiichirō Matsumoto (1887–1966), who was born a burakumin in Fukuoka prefecture. He was a statesman and termed "the father of buraku liberation".