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The Ainu of Japan: The History, Culture, and Discrimination Against this Aboriginal Group - Page 2

© Andy Thomason

The Ainu resisted, fighting numerous skirmishes and battles, the most notable being the Battle of Kosyamain in 1457, the Battle of Syaksyain in 1669, and the Battle of Kunasiri-Menasi in 1789. The Ainu lost each time and fell increasing under Japanese control.

Ainu population decreased drastically between 1822 and 1854, due in large part to infectious diseases like smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, venereal disease, and cholera. Forced labor practices and the breakup of families also contributed heavily to the population decline.

The Ainu in the Menji Era

During the Meiji era (1868-1912), without any formal treaties or negotiations, the Japanese government confiscated Ainu land as "ownerless" and offered it to settlers as homesteads.

It also adopted a policy of forced assimilation, banning the Ainu from hunting and fishing and forcing them to take up farming. Ainu language and customs were prohibited. Children were forced to attend schools where only Japanese was spoken. In 1869 Ezochi (Land of the Ainu) was formally renamed Hokkaido. The following year, the modern family register system identified the Ainu as being Japanese.

In 1899, the government enacted the Hokkaido Aborigine Protection Act, ostensibly to protect the Ainu people. However, the real purpose of the act was to legitimatize its assimilation policies. The act designated the Ainu as "kyudojin" (former aborigines with derogatory connotations). Under the act, each Ainu family was given a small plot of land for agriculture, but by this time the best land was already occupied by Japanese farmers. Many Ainu farmers lost the land parcels because they didn't have the experience to cultivate it.

Ainu Culture after WWII and Democratization

The democratization of Japan and the implementation of the present Constitution in 1946 sparked a renewed movement to restore Ainu rights. The Ainu people, as Japanese nationals, became entitled to equal protection by law. They formed organizations advocating their rights and seeking to protect their cultural heritage, the largest being the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, founded in 1946.

Submitting to pressure from these organizations and international opinion, Japan ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR, in 1979. Article 27 stipulates that in those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language.

However, Japan has officially stated that no such ethnic minorities exist in Japan. Only in 1991, in a report to the United Nations did Japan publicly recognize the Ainu as an ethnic minority. This admission did little, as the Japanese government still refused to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people.

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