November 23, 2002	Saturday	Ramazan 17, 1423

TOKYO: Discriminated against and almost wiped out as a distinct ethnic group by disease and assimilation, Japan’s surviving indigenous Ainu people are fighting a legal battle to defend their rights and heritage which culminates in two court hearings next month.

In a case before District Court in Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island, the Ainu are demanding the return of land seized from them and compensation for two centuries of exploitation by settlers and merchants until the early 20th century.

In particular, they are asking for a Japanese government compensation offer of 1.5 billion yen ($12.3 million) — which they claim is based on the value of their land in 1899, the year the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Act was passed — to be adjusted for inflation.

The cases arise from the passage in 1997 of a new law replacing the 1899 legislation, the Law for the Promotion of Ainu Culture, and Dissemination and Enlightenment about Ainu Traditions, which obliges the government to make restitution for assets including seized land.

Kawamura, 51, resplendent in a traditional ceremonial jacket with floral designs, decried the low level of the compensation on offer, estimating that it would mean the 49 Ainu families in his village would have to share a payout of just 750,000 yen.

The next hearing in the suit which opened in 1999 is set for Dec 19 and a ruling is expected next year.

With 30 per cent of Ainu working in agriculture, 30 per cent in fishing, and only 10 per cent in business and manufacturing, while another 30 per cent get by as day labourers, the Ainu are among Japan’s poorest people.

The second case handled by the Sapporo High Court concerns a history of the Ainu by an anthropologist Motomichi Kohno published in 1980.

The book reproduces two lists drawn up by doctors in 1896 and 1916 identifying by name Ainu who died of diseases carrying social stigma such as tuberculosis, leprosy, syphilis, without saying they were victims of introduced diseases against which they had no resistance.

“Those diseases were brought to Ainu people by the merchants and the farmer-soldiers sent by the Meiji (1868-1912), government to Hokkaido.

“They list the personal names of people whose grand-children are still alive. It is a violation of privacy. We want to have the publication stopped and the books recalled from the stores,” said Kawamura, adding the suit sought “to restore Ainu’s pride.”

The case brought by five Ainu plaintiffs was rejected in a district court ruling last June, but they have appealed and the first hearing in the appeal will be held on Dec 24.

There are around 70,000 Ainu in Japan, including about 5,000 in the Tokyo, according to Kawamura, although after a century of assimilation, very few are full-blood Ainu. The government puts the Ainu population of Hokkaido at some 25,000 and the true figure is hard to gauge.—AFP