The move comes ahead of next month's summit of the Group of Eight rich nations on the northern island of Hokkaido, home to most of Japan's estimated 70,000 Ainu.
Japan's parliament is scheduled to adopt a resolution on Friday to urge the government to "immediately" provide support for the Ainu, who have long faced discrimination and income disparity, lawmakers said.
The resolution to be submitted jointly by ruling and opposition lawmakers stipulates for the first time that the Ainu "are an indigenous people with a distinct language, religion and culture."
In May, representatives of the world's 370 million indigenous people, closing up a two-week session at the United Nations, demanded a say in decisions on global warming, saying they were suffering the worst impact.
So the world population of indigenous people is 370 million, eh? That's good to know.
1 comment:
Yeah, actually, pretty much everyone but the official sources recognizes the existence of the Ainu, and other non-Yamato ethnic groups living in Japan. In general, Ainu are portrayed as Indians in Japanese media. Actually, the name of Hokkaido was chosen partially because "kai" is in the Ainu name for the island, but also to fit the kanji "north sea road".
(It should be noted that, from my generation's pop culture, Super Sentai has never had an Ainu character; the most famous Power Ranger is an Indian.)
As for the official sources, well, there was national pride. Remember Nakasone's big flap over Japan succeeding because it didn't have "troublesome minorities"? And then, completely missing the point, he said America succeeded in spite of said minorities?
It's funny. Try to picture Congress reinstating a terminated tribe (the equivalent of what the Diet did). You can't do it. The Diet did it unanimously.
Ainu art is interesting because it's so much like Northwest Coastal art. Unfortunately, anything about the Ainu and Coastal Indians is tied to unfortunate implications (hyperdiffusionism, Kennewick man, etc.)
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