The burakumin (部落民, 'hamlet/village people') are a social grouping of Japanese people descended from members of the feudal class associated with kegare (穢れ, 'impurity'), mainly those with occupations related to death such as executioners, gravediggers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, and tanners. Burakumin are physically indistinguishable from other Japanese but have historically been regarded as a socially distinct group. When identified, they are often subject to discrimination and prejudice. As of 2000^[update], there were an estimated 3 million burakumin living in the country, mostly in western Japan.^{[citation needed]}

During Japan's feudal era, these occupations acquired a hereditary status of oppression, and later became a formal class within the class system of the Edo period (1603–1868). The stratum immediately below merchants comprised the hinin (literally "non-persons"), and below them the eta ("great filth"), who were together known as the senmin ("base people"). They were subject to various legal restrictions, such as being forced to live in separate villages or neighborhoods. In 1871, the new Meiji government legally abolished the feudal classes, but stigma against the former hinin and eta continued. The term burakumin came into use to refer to these people and their descendants. Some reports indicate that discrimination against burakumin in marriage and employment persists in certain regions. They are more likely to work a low-paying job, live in poverty, or be associated with the yakuza. A movement for burakumin rights began in the 1920s, and the Buraku Liberation League was founded in 1946; it has achieved some of its legal goals, including securing restrictions on third-party access to family registries. Notable burakumin include writer Kenji Nakagami and politician Hiromu Nonaka.

The term burakumin is derived from buraku (部落), a Japanese term which refers literally to a small, generally rural, commune or hamlet. In the regions of Japan where the burakumin issue is much less publicly prominent, such as Hokkaido and Okinawa, buraku is still used in a non-pejorative sense to refer to any hamlet. Historically, the term buraku was used for an outcast community that was discriminated against officially and formally.^{[citation needed]}

A term used much for buraku settlements is dōwa chiku (同和地区, 'assimilation districts'), an official term for districts designated for government and local authority assimilation projects from 1969 to 2002.^{[citation needed]}

The social issue concerning "discriminated communities" is usually referred to as dōwa mondai (同和問題, 'assimilation issues') or, less commonly, buraku mondai (部落問題, 'hamlet issues').^{[citation needed]}

During the feudal era, the outcastes were termed eta (穢多, lit. 'an abundance of defilement' or 'an abundance of filth'), a term now considered derogatory. Eta towns were termed etamura (穢多村).^{[citation needed]}

Some burakumin refer to their own communities as mura (村, 'villages') and themselves as mura-no-mono (村の者, 'village people').^{[citation needed]}

Other outcaste groups from whom buraku may have been descended included the hinin (非人, lit. 'non-human'). The definition of hinin, as well as their social status and typical occupations varied over time, but typically included ex-convicts and vagrants who worked as town guards, street cleaners or entertainers.^{[citation needed]}