Saxony Binner-Haramundanis

October 16th, 2018

World Geography

Professor Jackson

The Ainu People

In today’s social climate, the general population is only just beginning to realize how

overlooked and ignored indigenous groups have been. Not only in the Americas have indigenous

populations been historically mistreated and misrepresented: the ongoing negative impact on

ingidenous populations by settler nations is a global problem. In Japan, for instance, the original

indigenous population did not look or act like the Japanese majority that people are commonly

familiar with. Yet it wasn’t until 2008 that the Japanese government official recognized the Ainu

people as an indigenous group, and vowed to make a new law to “regain their status, regain their

culture, and rebuild relationships” (Okada 2), though it was not until February of this year that an

official bill was made in order to legally recognize the Ainu as the indigenous population of

Japan. Prior to this year, the only recognition Japan gave to the Ainu was in the form of public

statements and court rulings (Murakami). It is only very recently that there has been a

pronounced push back against the assimilation of the Ainu people into Japanese culture.

Originally from the northern island of Sakhalin and what is now known as Hokkaido, the

Ainu tragically have minimal information regarding their culture and history due in part by the

efforts of Japanese assimilation and the fact that the Ainu language lacks a writing system

(Okada 2). In 1871 the Census Registration Act was put into effect in Japan. This act forced

assimilation of the Ainu into Japanese society by mandating new names upon them and
outlawing their culture and language. Years earlier, in 1855, the Treaty of Shimoda was the

catalyst which led to the direct oppression of the Ainu people. When Japan and Russia were

dividing islands the original agreement was to have shared possession of Sakhalin, but in 1869

during the Meiji Restoration the area now known as Hokkaido was made into Japanese territory,

and finally in 1875, 4 years after the Census Registration Act, the Treaty of Saint Petersburg left

all of Sakhalin to Russia, and the Kuril Islands to Japan. As a result, the indigenous Ainu

populations were forced to choose citizenship, and most were not treated with respect and equity

in their new environments (Okada 5). As these new territories were being defined, Japan

continued to put laws into place that facilitated immigration to Hokkaido and harmed local Ainu

people. This culminated in the 1890s, after the Immigrant Support Rules which provided

expenses for food and lodging for immigrants to Hokkaido was put into place, when businesses

and corporations began to move to Hokkaido, and in 1897 the Hokkaido Undeveloped Land

Allocation Law was passed, which was exclusionary towards the Ainu people (Okada 5).

As mentioned earlier, the Ainu culture lacks a writing system, and is itself an isolated

language, meaning it has no roots in any other language around the world. Most of the Ainu

culture is recorded in art and passed down via oral traditions. Much of early Ainu art overlaps

with the time period of Jomon art, and forensic testing reveals a DNA connection between the

Ainu and the Jomon people. This biological evidence is backed up by the intrinsic similarities

between Jomon and Ainu art, and this could imply that the Ainu culture is over 10,000 years old

(Dubreuil 4). Ainu spiritual beliefs divide the world into two distinct parts that run parallel to

each other: ​kamuy-mosir​, the land of spirits, and ​Ainu-mosir​, the land of humans. An important

aspect of Ainu spirituality is that nothing is inherently worshipped in Ainu religion, and that
instead people live in harmony with spirits, and favor from them is defined by the people’s

respect for the gods. It is also important to note that Ainu art is not specifically spiritual, though

it does often show respect to the gods and nature, and that all art must be original and

reproductions are thought to be a form of showing disrespect to the gods (Dubreuil 9). Being

respectful is valued over inherent worship, which is unique as it implies the culture has few

ritualistic objects and instead makes things for their sole aesthetic or purposeful value.

The Ainu people will likely remain one of the more obscure cultures in the world. This

may have to do with their unknown populations, which the Japanese government estimates

around 25,000 but many expert opinions place the estimate around 200,000 due to most Ainu

people in Japan being unaware of their ancestry (W), or it may have to do with the fact that the

culture is so remote, and most Westerners simply think of those native to the Americas when the

term “indigenous” comes up. However, despite their obscurity and uncertain populations, the

struggle for recognition in a dominant settler society is one that links all indigenous groups

together, and any progress in decolonization is a positive action.

 Works Cited

Dubreuil, Chisato O. "The Ainu and Their Culture: A Critical Twenty-First Century

Assessment." ​The Asia-Pacific Journal​, pdf ed., vol. 5, no. 11, 3 Nov. 2007, pp. 1-56.

Murakami, Sakura. "Japan's Ainu Recognition Bill: What Does It Mean for Hokkaido's

Indigenous People?" ​The Japan Times​ [Tokyo], 25 Feb. 2019. ​The Japan Times,​

www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/02/25/reference/japans-ainu-recognition-bill-mean-hok

kaidos-indigenous-people/.

Okada, Mitsuharu Vincent. "The Plight of Ainu, Indigenous People of Japan." ​Journal of

Indigenous Social Development​, pdf ed., vol. 1, no. 1, Jan. 2012, pp. 1-14.

W, Sarah. "The Ainu." ​Tofugu​, 8 Nov. 2013, www.tofugu.com/japan/ainu-japan/.