Japan's Policies Towards the Ainu Language and Culture with Special Reference to North Fennoscandian Sami Policies

Abstract

Under Japan's colonization of Ainu Lands (Hokkaido, the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin), the Ainu were disconnected from their lands by relocations and deprived of their language and culture by regulations. In 1899, the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act came into force to finalize the assimilation of the Ainu into Japanese society. In 1997, as a result of Ainu efforts to scrap the assimilation policies, the Ainu Culture Promotion Act (CPA) replaced the Act of 1899. The CPA was expected to emancipate the Ainu from the sufferings caused by the assimilation policies, and yet it stipulated neither Ainu indigeneity nor their linguistic and cultural rights. It is still in effect even after the 2008 official recognition of the Ainu as an indigenous people in the northern part of Japan by the Government of Japan. This article attempts to examine Japan's past and present policies towards the Ainu language and culture in the international context for the revitalization of the Ainu language and culture as the Ainu desire. In order to do this, it first outlines the assimilation policies, and then traces the Ainu struggle for survival as a people. It also discusses the CPA and the Final Report written by the Advisory Committee for Future Ainu Policy, which both form the basis of Japan's present Ainu policies. Finally, in order to explore the revitalization of the Ainu language and culture, how the North Fennoscandian Sami policies have advanced is surveyed.