The Ainu are an indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and the Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, such as Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula, and the Khabarovsk Krai.

The Ainu are the indigenous peoples of Japan and far east Russia. Although the true number of Ainu descendants living in Japan is unknown, it is believed that only 200 pure blood Ainu remain, most of these upon Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido.

The Ainu are believed to go back 15,000 years - further back than the Sumerians or Egyptians. For this reason, some people say the Ainu are not just a people, but a whole "Ainu race".

Oct 2, 2023 · Ainu people were stripped of their land and fishing rights, and formally assimilated into Japanese culture with the passing of the Former Aborigines Protection Act. They became the vanished people.

Aug 3, 2024 · Batchelor went on to document how the Ainu were forcibly driven from their land, forbade to practice their traditions and culture, they were not allowed to hunt for food, speak Ainu, obtain an education, and were segregated into small villages.

May 20, 2020 · She is Ainu, an indigenous people who now live mostly on Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, but whose lands once spanned from northern Honshu (the Japanese mainland) north to Sakhalin...

The Ainu protested against discrimination, criticized the prejudice and ignorance of Wajin who still believed the Ainu were leading traditional lives, and called for independence. There were also movements to form ethnic organizations. Some Ainu were even elected to municipal assemblies.

Oct 25, 2017 · A Tanzanian historian and poet conjures alternative engagements with Black African women who were marginalized by violent colonial histories and imprisoned in the archives. As the 2024 poet-in-resident at the magazine, she imaginatively reaches for new possibilities.

Aug 22, 2023 · The journey of the Ainu, from ancient inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago to a marginalized community and then to a recognized and celebrated part of Japanese culture, mirrors the complexities inherent in the histories of indigenous communities worldwide.

Ainu, indigenous people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands who were culturally and physically distinct from their Japanese neighbours until the second part of the 20th century.