This is the response of a Japanese student of Ainu culture on exchange in New Zealand to the recent announcement that Japan will recognise the Ainu people of Hokkaido as indigenous
_{by Terry Greatrex}

The recent announcement that Japan will officially recognise Ainu as an indigenous people has pleased one Japanese student on exchange at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Napier.

On 7 June 2008, Andoh Tadataka was nearing the end of a three-month stint at EIT, studying English in the mornings, and Maori language and culture in the afternoons. A fourth-year student of Ainu culture at Tomakomai Komazawa University in Hokkaido, Tadataka had come as part of a long-standing relationship between the two institutions.

“My friends in Japan are very happy,” he said. “I’ve just been on the phone with them.” The day before, 6 June, both houses of the Diet unanimously approved a resolution urging the government to officially recognise Ainu as an indigenous people.

“They are proud,” said Tadataka, who is not Ainu himself, “that at last they are recognised as Ainu.”

The struggle for recognition had taken almost 150 years. The resolution acknowledged this, stating, "We must take seriously the historical fact that numerous Ainu people were discriminated against and impoverished as Japan underwent modernisation."

 Photo: Andoh Tadataka admires the carving on Te Ara o Tāwhaki at Te Whare Takiura o Kahungunu - EIT

 
Commentators have mentioned two events that may have influenced the timing of the announcement. Last September, the United Nations adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People upholding the human, land and resource rights of the world’s 370 million indigenous people, including Ainu. And in July this year, Japan hosts the G8 summit in Hokkaido, traditional homeland of Ainu.

Tadataka noted that change in Japan often comes from outside rather than from within. But he also said that the change will not be fast. “Many Ainu don’t openly admit they are Ainu. Maybe one or two percent will tell people who they really are as a result of this announcement but there will be a lot of discussion before slow change will occur,” he said. Tadataka returned to Japan on 15 June to complete his current university course and continue with post-graduate study of Ainu culture.

_{Terry Greatrex is ESOL Lecturer at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawke's Bay. He lived in Japan for 13 years and has a Japanese Korean wife.}