Google Earth thought that there would be no problem when it provided maps of historical Japan on its web service.

However it seems that the move has opened a can of worms which has now resulted in a government inquiry and angry accusations of prejudice. 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 caste system were people called "burakumin," who were forced to live in isolation because they did jobs associated with death, such as working with leather, butchering animals and digging graves.

While the old villages have gone the descendants of burakumin make up about 3 million of the country's 127 million people and they still face prejudice from modern Japanese. One modern company regularly screens out burakumin job seekers and will often do elaborate background checks to find out.

However until Google Earth came out, employers did not know the locations of the old villages where it is likely burakumin workers would come from. One of the maps showed a Tokyo village being called "eta," a now strongly derogatory word for burakumin that literally means "filthy mass." If you then click on it you can see the modern streets and buildings that are currently in the same area.