The bizarre thing about the complaints about the maps is that Matsuoka initially criticized Google for displaying the maps and even complained to the Justice Minister about them, but when the references to burakumin communities about which he complained were removed, a representative of the organization of which he is secretary-general asserted that removing them was an act of prejudice. It seems as though there is nothing Google can do regarding these maps besides not making them available. In a situation in which the only option that would not be considered prejudiced is to not provide useful information, the complainers are probably being oversensitive. The information about discrimination against descendants of burakumin in Japan does somewhat justify their oversensitivity, but prejudice in Japanese culture is no reason to suppress these maps.
>Two weeks later, after the public comments and at least one reporter contacted Google, the old Japanese maps were suddenly changed, wiped clean of any references to the buraku villages.
What else was Google supposed to do? They don't want to get involved in these crazy cultural wars. They just make information available: it's the culture which attaches weird connotations to it.
>There was no note made of the changes, and they were seen by some as an attempt to quietly dodge the issue.
Circular. Who are the unnamed "some"?
>"This is like saying those people didn't exist. There are people for whom this is their hometown, who are still living there now," said Takashi Uchino from the Buraku Liberation League headquarters in Tokyo.
Bizarre. If Google Earth did not exist, would these people cease to exist?
>The League also sent a letter to Google, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press. It wants a meeting to discuss its knowledge of the buraku issue and position on the use of its services for discrimination.
Google has no knowledge of the buraku issue, doesn't care like you idiots do, and are in a much saner headspace than the lot of you.
Quoting ekiru: The information about discrimination against descendants of burakumin in Japan does somewhat justify their oversensitivity, but prejudice in Japanese culture is no reason to suppress these maps.
-- right, while they are totally unable to actually fix ongoing prejudice, and can do nothing in the face of large well-known companies following the same discriminatory policy, they target the one company that probably truly does not discriminate based on their pet issue.
