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Japan Ainu
The second largest minority group among Japanese
citizens is
the Ainu, who are thought to be related to the Tungusic,
Altaic,
and Uralic peoples of Siberia. Historically, the Ainu
(Ainu means
human in the Ainu language) were an indigenous hunting and
gathering population who occupied most of northern Honshu
as late
as the Nara period (A.D. 710-94). As Japanese settlement
expanded,
the Ainu were pushed northward, until by the Meiji period
they were
confined by the government to a small area in Hokkaido, in
a manner
similar to the placing of native Americans on
reservations.
Characterized as remnants of a primitive circumpolar
culture, the
fewer than 20,000 Ainu in 1990 were considered racially
distinct
and thus not fully Japanese. Disease and a low birth rate
had
severely diminished their numbers over the past two
centuries, and
intermarriage had brought about an almost completely mixed
population.
Although no longer in daily use, the Ainu language is
preserved
in epics, songs, and stories transmitted orally over
succeeding
generations. Distinctive rhythmic music and dances and
some Ainu
festivals and crafts are preserved, but mainly in order to
take
advantage of tourism.
Data as of January 1994
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