ASAHIKAWA, Hokkaido — For thousands of years, Kenichi Kawamura's ancestors owned nothing but had access to everything.
His Ainu forebears took fish from the rivers and bear from the forest. They lived in small communities of up to 10 families with a chief responsible for the village's collective belongings.
Then the "wajin," or Japanese, began to encroach. Gradually the Ainu were forced from Honshu north to Ainu Moshiri, or the "Land of Man," today known as Hokkaido.