About the Museum

Liberty Osaka (formerly the Osaka Human Rights Museum) was a museum dedicated to human rights situated in Naniwa-ku, a ward in south Osaka City. As the first general museum dedicated to human rights in Japan, the focus of its permanent exhibits was the history of the struggle against discrimination experienced by the nation's minority ethnic groups; the Burakumin, the Ainu of Hokkaidō, the Ryukyuans of Okinawa and Japan's communities of Korean and Chinese descent. There were also exhibits dedicated to discrimination issues affecting women, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people, the physically challenged, and the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (hibakusha). Founded in December 1985 to document the history of the Osaka human rights movement, it was relaunched in December 1995 as the Osaka Jinken Hakubutsu-kan (Human Rights Museum).