Discrimination
There is some amount of racial, class, and genetic discrimination in the miai process.
Many Japan-born Koreans are discriminated against for being “half-bloods” — not of full Japanese ancestry.
Women born on the year of the horse in the fifth cycle of the Japanese lunar calendar, “hinoeuma” — every sixtieth year — are thought to be bad luck. Women born during this year will often claim to have been born in the previous or following year. The belief is so widespread that in 1966, according to the Japan Statistical Yearbook, the birthrate in Japan took a 26% dip.
The most widespread class discriminate is against members of the burakumin. This former outcaste group is composed of descendants of workers traditionally associated with trades involving blood, death, or other undesirables. Some examples are leather-workers, shoe-menders, and butchers since shoes are too dirty to be taken into the house and meat was in the past forbidden by the Buddhist faith. During the Tokugawa Shogunate, demotion to burakumin status was sometimes a way of punishing criminals. Today, burakumin members may be identified by the region of the city where they live or by their street address. Often, a nakōdo will require a candidate to bring a family history to prove that they are not a member of the burakumin.
Members of the Ainu, an indigenous people from the Hokkaidō region are commonly avoided as well. Descendants of people who were exposed to the radiation from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are avoided due to stories of possible child deformities and susceptibilities to rare diseases.
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