TOKYO - When Google the search giant included historical maps of Japan to Google Earth's collection last year they didn't realise that it could backfire. The company is now facing inquiries from the Japan's Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste communities. The maps date back to the country's feudal era, when shoguns ruled and a strict caste system was in place. At the bottom of the hierarchy were a class called the "burakumin," ethnically identical to other Japanese but forced to live in isolation because they did jobs associated with death, such as working with leather, butchering animals and digging graves

Castes have long since been abolished, and the old buraku villages have largely faded away or been swallowed by Japan's sprawling metropolises. Today, rights groups say the descendants of burakumin make up about 3 million of the country's 127 million people.

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.

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