Koki NARITA

Abstract: Ainu as a key to make a multicultural society

Japanese people sometimes say that Japan is the monoethnic country consisting of Japanese. However Japan is not consisting of only one ethnic group Japanese. There are indigenous peoples in Japan called Ainu. Ainu has lived in Hokkaido far before Japanese people started to live in Hokkaido. Knowing Ainu people is a key to make Japan multicultural society. Ainu people used to live with hunting and live near the river. However, Japanese people make some laws, in which they forced Ainu to live in the Japanese styles. Ainu people were forced to live with farming but it was difficult for the most of Ainu peoples and the standard of living of them got worse and worse. These acts existed until the New Ainu law was established in 1997. The new Ainu law doesn’t save the right of Ainu as the indigenous people so much. Also it was in 2008 when Ainu people were recognized as the indigenous people. The economically situation of Ainu people have yet to recover. The ratio of university entrance of Ainu is lower than that of Japanese. The ratio of welfare aid of Ainu is also higher than that of Japanese. What we can do to solve this problem is to know Ainu people and explain it to the foreign peoples.

Keywords: Ainu, multiculturalism,