Tag - ainu

 
 

AINU

Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 11, 2020
Episode 72: Preserving the endangered Ainu language
The Ainu language has been declared critically endangered by UNESCO, with few people left alive today who speak it.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Oct 25, 2020
The Ainu language and the global movement for indigenous rights
With the Ainu language considered to be on the brink of extinction, global connections are breathing new life into revitalization efforts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2020
‘Ainu Mosir’: A coming-of-age tale, respectfully told
Takeshi Fukunaga's film centered on the indigenous people of northern Japan tells the story of a 14-year-old boy learning to appreciate his heritage.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 17, 2020
Ainu group's fishing lawsuit is first to seek confirmation of indigenous rights
A group representing the ethnic minority in northern Japan is seeking an exemption from a ban on the commercial fishing of salmon in rivers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2020
National Ainu Museum opens in Hokkaido after COVID-19 delay
The 8,600-square-meter museum, a park and a memorial make up the complex named Upopoy, which means 'singing in a large group' in the Ainu language.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2020
'AINU' trademark application criticized by Japan's indigenous people
An application by an individual in China to register a trademark using the name of Japan's indigenous Ainu people has been criticized for being an attempt to profit off their culture.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2020
Olympic snub: Dance of Japan's indigenous Ainu dropped from opening ceremony
Olympic organizers have dropped a dance by Japan's indigenous Ainu people from the opening ceremony of this year's Summer Games, a representative of the minority group said on Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 14, 2020
Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso again courts controversy with remarks about Japan's ethnic identity
Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso apologized Tuesday for saying Japan has been unified under a single language and ethnic identity for the past 2,000 years, a comment viewed as ignoring the country's ethnic minorities including the indigenous Ainu.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2019
National Ainu Museum in Hokkaido to exhibit over 700 artifacts
A national museum dedicated to the Ainu ethnic minority in northern Japan will exhibit more than 700 artifacts, an official said Thursday, as the facility offered a preview to the press ahead of its official opening in April.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 3, 2019
Hokkaido Ainu association sues University of Tokyo to have remains returned
An Ainu indigenous rights association in Hokkaido has filed a lawsuit against the University of Tokyo, seeking the return of remains of their ancestors stored at the university.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Nov 1, 2019
Japan's shrine meant to celebrate Hokkaido's Ainu divides them
On a wooded lake shore in southwest Hokkaido, the government is building a modernist shrine that has divided the indigenous Ainu community whose vanishing culture it was designed to celebrate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN
May 11, 2019
Tomoko Keira's 'The Spirit of Huci': A year of living with an Ainu elder — review
One part Ainu cookbook and three parts a cultural record of Ainu values and beliefs, Tomoko Keira's 'The Spirit of Huci' offers, for the first time, the voices of Ainu women in English.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2019
Japan enacts law recognizing Ainu as indigenous, but activists say it falls short of U.N. declaration
Hokkaido's ethnic minority will get a promotional boost, but not the rights to education and self-determination spelled out in the U.N's 2007 declaration on indigenous people.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2019
'Empty words': Rights groups say Japan's bill recognizing Ainu as indigenous group falls short
Rights groups criticize the government over a recent bill recognizing the Ainu people for the first time as “an indigenous group.”
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 25, 2019
Japan's Ainu recognition bill: What does it mean for Hokkaido's indigenous people?
In a first for Japan, a bill to legally recognize the Ainu as the indigenous people of Japan is about to be submitted to the Diet.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2018
Hokkaido celebrates 150th anniversary of its naming with a plug for ethnic diversity
Hokkaido formally celebrated the 150th anniversary of its name Sunday in Sapporo, with the Emperor and Empress in attendance and Ainu representatives performing traditional dances.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2018
Japan's indigenous Ainu sue to bring their ancestors' bones back home
Activist group's hardball tactics expose rifts in the Ainu community over the fate of bones held at universities.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jun 2, 2018
Japan Times 1918: Teacher's house stoned after racial epithet
Twenty-three students of the Odate Middle School in Akita Prefecture in northwestern Japan attacked the house of Mr. Kishida, instructor of natural history in the school, twice on the night of June 2, throwing stones and destroying the windows and paper slides of the house.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 7, 2017
'Kotan Chronicles: Selected Poems 1928-1943': Translating poetry about the Ainu and frontier life in Hokkaido
Poetry can be a vital record of the past. Anarchist and poet Genzo Sarashina (1904-1985) was the son of first-generation Japanese settlers in Hokkaido. Later he became an expert on Ainu culture, working tirelessly to conserve the language, fables and songs of Japan's indigenous peoples and publishing over 35 books on the topic.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2017
Japan's government to stipulate Ainu as 'indigenous people' for first time
The central government is likely to stipulate for the first time in law that the Ainu are an "indigenous people" of Japan, according to sources.

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