Ainu people

The Ainu are an indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and the Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, such as Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula, and the Khabarovsk Krai. They have occupied these areas, known to them as "Ainu Mosir" (Ainu: アイヌモシㇼ, lit. 'the land of the Ainu'), since before the arrival of the modern Yamato and Russians.^[5][6][7] These regions are often referred to as Ezochi (蝦夷地) and its inhabitants as Emishi (蝦夷) in historical Japanese texts. Along with the Yamato and Ryukyuan ethnic groups, the Ainu people are one of the primary historic ethnic groups of Japan and are along with the Ryukyuans one of the few ethnic minorities native to the Japanese archipelago.

Official surveys of the known Ainu population in Hokkaido received 11,450 responses in 2023, and the Ainu population in Russia was estimated at 300 in 2021.^[2][3] Unofficial estimates in 2002 placed the total population in Japan at 200,000 or higher, as the near-total assimilation of the Ainu into Japanese society has resulted in many individuals of Ainu descent having no knowledge of their ancestry.^[8]

The Ainu were subject to forced assimilation during the Japanese colonization of Hokkaido since at least the 18th century. Japanese assimilation policies in the 19th century around the Meiji Restoration included forcing Ainu peoples off their land. This, in turn, forced them to give up traditional ways of life such as subsistence hunting and fishing. Ainu people were not allowed to practice their religion and were placed into Japanese-language schools, where speaking the Hokkaido Ainu language was forbidden. In 1966, there were about 300 native Ainu speakers. In the 1980s, there were fewer than 100 native Ainu speakers, with only 15 using the language daily.^[9][10] The Hokkaido Ainu language is likely extinct today, as there remain no known native speakers.^[11][12] The other Ainu languages, Sakhalin Ainu and Kuril Ainu were declared extinct in the 20th century. In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to revitalize the Hokkaido Ainu language.^[13]