A member of the Hokkaido prefectural assembly stirred another controversy by stating that it is "highly questionable" that the Ainu are an indigenous people of northern Japan. His statement is an insult to the Ainu people, who are making efforts to preserve their identity and cultural tradition, and ignores steps taken by the national government to help the Ainu in accordance with the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Such a statement could disseminate disinformation about the Ainu and their history and even foment prejudice against them.

It would not be far-fetched to say that the view expressed in the assemblyman's statement — characterized by a failure to recognize the sufferings that a minority group like the Ainu has experienced — shares the same root as the problem of hate speech against Korean residents in Japan.

Masaru Onodera, a member of the assembly group led by the Liberal Democratic Party, made the statement while questioning the Hokkaido government last week concerning its measures on the Ainu. It came just after the U.N. held the first World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in New York on Sept. 22 and 23.

Onodera seems to forget that in the wake of the U.N. declaration, both houses of the Diet unanimously passed a resolution in June 2008 calling on the government to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people and that Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's Cabinet pledged to take a comprehensive policy to assist the Ainu people in the spirit of the declaration.

Both the Diet and the government said they "take seriously" the fact that in the process of Japan's modernization, many Ainu people were discriminated against and were thrown into poverty despite their legal status as members of the Japanese state like other Japanese. The government declared that the Ainu are a native people of northern parts of the Japanese archipelago, especially Hokkaido, and have their own "distinctiveness" in language, religion and culture.

Onodera also reportedly said, "Our ancestors have not done reckless, unreasonable things to the Ainu. I wonder if it is correct to embed such a masochistic historical view in Hokkaido."

Such a view cannot be justified in light of historical facts. The Meiji government prohibited the Ainu from fishing salmon and hunting deer, banned traditional habits and forced them to use the Japanese language. It also decided that land inhabited by the Ainu was "owner-less" and nationalized it and categorized the Ainu as "kyu dojin" or former aborigines in the family registry — an expression that helped fuel discrimination against the Ainu. In short, the Japanese government strongly pushed a policy to assimilate the Ainu without respect for their distinct identity and culture.

What is ominous about Onodera's statement is that he does not appear to be alone. In August, a member of the Sapporo municipal assembly came under fire after writing in his Twitter message that the Ainu do not exist anymore. Yasuyuki Kaneko of the LDP also said that at the most, Japanese of Ainu descent exist and accused them of taking advantage of administrative services specially provided to Ainu people. The LDP's Hokkaido chapter issued a verbal warning to Onodera. Kaneko left the LDP-led assembly group to become an independent after the city assembly passed a nonbinding resolution calling for him to resign. The LDP itself should realize that the party's attitude toward the Ainu is being questioned.

The 2008 government statement said that the Ainu holding honor and dignity as a people and handing them on to future generations will contribute to building a dynamic "convivial society" in which diverse values coexist. It is all the more important for both citizens and politicians to learn not only cultural aspects of the Ainu but their history — especially their modern history that imposed hardships on them.