Diet passes law formally recognizing Ainu

April 20 , 2019

On April 19, several laws were passed in the House of Councillors plenary session, including legislation formally recognizing the Ainu as an “indigenous people” for the first time in Japanese legal history. Under the new law, the government will extend the Ainu grants to promote industry and tourism.

Concentrating mainly in the northernmost island of Hokkaido and officially estimated to number 25,000, the Ainu are a distinct—and long discriminated—minority in a predominantly homogeneous society.