(Illustration by Yukiyo Oda/Stripes Japan)

To the outsider, Japan may look remarkably homogeneous with most of its 125 million people sharing the same features, language and customs. However, the country is not without minorities, including a kind of invisible minority known as the Burakumin. Burakumin (literally, village people) are an “invisible” minority because it is not their appearance or ethnicity that sets them apart but, historically, their class.

Kita (north) (Illustration by Stripes Japan)