Japan Press Weekly

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2023 May 31 - June 6 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Kami attends Ainu-hosted international symposium regarding indigenous peoples’ rights

An Ainu people’s group on May 27 and 28 held an international symposium in Hokkaido’s Urahoro Town to learn from other indigenous groups’ experiences in their fight to protect their fishing rights.

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Kami Tomoko attended the gathering. On the sidelines of the two-day symposium, Kami held talks on May 27 with the head of the Obihiro Municipal Ainu Association, Sasamura Akiyoshi, and expressed her determination to work hard in collaboration with other parties to help the Ainu recover their lost rights.

The symposium organizing group, the Raporo Ainu Nation, has waged a legal fight in which they urge the national and prefectural governments to exclude the Ainu from the ban on salmon fishing in rivers on the grounds that the right to fish salmon in rivers is part of the Ainu’s inherent rights.

In the symposium, indigenous activists from Asia, Oceania, North America, and Northern Europe in turn stressed that the protection of indigenous fishing rights is of vital importance for indigenous peoples’ physical and cultural survival.

Ainu are indigenous people of Japan who primarily live in Hokkaido. Under nearly a century of government policies, Ainu people were forced to assimilate themselves into Japanese society and deprived of their traditional rights and dignity. Even now, they experience discrimination, prejudice, and a significant education gap.

The Japanese government in 2019 established a law on the promotion of Ainu policy. The law recognizes the Ainu as indigenous people, but fails to safeguard their rights, including the right to use ancestral lands and resources.

Past related articles:
> About 45% of Ainu indigenous people earn less than 3 million yen a year [December 26, 2022]
> Government should apologize for its horrendous Ainu policies: JCP Shiokawa [April 11, 2019]