Japan’s ‘vanishing’ Ainu will finally be recognized as indigenous people

A bill, which was passed on Friday, for the first time has officially recognized the Ainu of Hokkaido as an “indigenous” people of Japan. Feeling neither Ainu nor Japanese, Kano left Japan in the late 1980s for New York. Both Shimizu and Kano say the new law grants too much power to Japan’s central government, which requires Ainu groups to seek its approval for state-sponsored cultural projects.

Source: edition.cnn.com