Japan recognizes bear-worshippers
Pastor Dale Morgan
Japan recognizes bear-worshippers*
By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Last Updated: 4:20AM BST 07/06/2008
A bear-worshipping indigenous minority of northern Japan are to receive
official recognition, a move that will end 140 years of enforced
assimilation and discrimination.
A group of people from Japan's minority Ainu people bow their heads
after the Japanese parliament recognised the Ainu as an indigenous people
Representatives from Japan's minority Ainu people bow their heads after
the Japanese parliament recognised their indigenous status
The Ainu, the original inhabitants of Hokkaido island, were conquered by
Japan in the mid-1800s and forcibly assimilated into Japanese culture.
The Meiji government in Tokyo declared the Ainu language illegal, forced
them to adopt Japanese names, redistributed their land to mainland
settlers and forced them to labour in the fishing industry.
But yesterday Japan's parliament unanimously adopted a resolution to
recognise the Ainu as "indigenous people that have their own language,
religious and cultural identity."
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Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura issued a statement saying
that the government would set up a panel to draw up measures to assist
the Ainu.
The Ainu are one of Japan's most marginalised groups. Government
estimates put the number of people with half or more Ainu ancestry at
around 50,000.
The century-long repression of the Ainu has all but rendered their
dialect extinct.
The cultural differences are also significantly at odds with mainland
Japanese culture.
Ainu men preferring full beards and long hair and women tattoo around
their mouths for decoration.
Traditional clothing is made from tree bark and the Ainu are animists –
believing that everything in their rugged homeland contains a spirit.
They worshipped natural landmarks and animals, especially bears.
"The Ainu people have been waiting for this day for 140 years and we no
longer have to be ashamed of being considered a minority group," said
Mikiko Maruko, an Ainu woman attending a festival in Tokyo to mark the
Diet's decision.
"This is a very important day for us – and for other minorities in this
country," she said. "This is the beginning of our empowerment, although
this is just the start of a new phase of our struggle."
Ainu elders also welcomed the announcement, which they hope will entitle
them to treatment similar to the Aborigines of Australia and native
Americans.
"We will take seriously the historical fact that during our country's
modernization process, many Ainu people were discriminated against and
were forced to live in poverty," Mr Machimura's statement said.
"Today's resolution will turn a new page in Japanese history," Tadashi
Kato, director of the Hokkaido Utari Association, told a meeting of a
group of politicians. "I sincerely hope you will continue to support the
creation of a society with ethnic harmony."