Last year, Google added woodblock-print, Edo-era maps of Japan to its service. It seems that the Japanese have begun to take notice of this and are not happy; mainly because these maps can be viewed overlaying current satellite photos and clearly label areas that were once once home to lower-caste communities. Many of these locations of buraku villages were not generally known to the public, and people are not happy at Google for giving the world easy access to this information. 

So why is this a big deal now? This group of people, once known as "burakumin," were outcasts of society due to their death-related occupations (such as grave diggers, butchers, leather craftsmen). In the Shinto religion, impurities are able to cling to people or objects. The killing of animals, seen as an impure act, was a cause of contamination. Thus, the burakumin were placed in the lowest class of people (the "eta" or "filthy mass") and were socially discriminated against.  Clearly, Google did not do their homework to predict what the social ramifications of their actions would be.

The Associated Press reports that even today, descendents of the burakumin class face discrimination:

But they still face prejudice, based almost entirely on where they live or their ancestors lived. Moving is little help, because employers or parents of potential spouses can hire agencies to check for buraku ancestry through Japan's elaborate family records, which can span back over a hundred years.

 

An employee at a large, well-known Japanese company, who works in personnel and has direct knowledge of its hiring practices, said the company actively screens out burakumin job seekers.

"If we suspect that an applicant is a burakumin, we always do a background check to find out," she said. She agreed to discuss the practice only on condition that neither she nor her company be identified.

 Google then tried to quietly delete the labels on the Edo-perio maps, but this only caused them more trouble.