When I was a student in Japan, there was little taught about the Indigenous peoples of Japan in any school. I believe that the situation has not changed much, unfortunately. Since I still don’t know much about them, I began researching to obtain basic knowledge about one of the two Indigenous peoples, the Ainu. The Ainu live mainly in Hokkaido, a northern region of Japan, and in part of Russia. There are about 25,000 Ainu living in Japan according to official population estimates (the unofficial number is upwards of 200,000 people).

In the mid-to-late 19th century Japanese settlers took over the indigenous land. The Ainu were forced to assimilate under pressure from various laws and the Japanese government banned their cultural traditions. The government’s assimilation policy resulted in many Ainu being ignorant of their own culture and history. For that reason the Ainu language is now considered endangered. The Ainu people also hope their living and educational standards can be upgraded. According to the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, 38.3 percent of the Ainu in Hokkaido are on welfare, compared with the local average of 24.6 percent. Moreover, only 17.4 percent of the Ainu receive a college education while 38.5 percent of the locals do.

Surprisingly, the Japanese government did not recognize the ethnic Ainu as Japan’s indigenous people until 2008; it must have been a major challenge for a country long proud of being ethnically homogeneous.

Probably because of this recognition, the description of the Ainu has significantly increased in the textbooks used for primary schools in 2010. Needless to say it was a big step forward since school education about them is important to raising awareness of the Ainu among the population at large. However, teacher knowledge is essential to teaching the contents of the textbook properly and the improvement of teacher training is crucial.

In 2010, the documentary film TOKYO Ainu was released. I believe there were few documentaries featuring the Ainu made before this one. This film features the Ainu living in Tokyo and its surrounding areas actively promoting their traditional culture. The promotional footage is available here on YouTube. For more information about the Ainu, the Ainu Museum website is also a useful resource for learning about Ainu history and culture.