The Ainu, Law, and Legal Mobilization, 1984–2009

Stevens, Georgina

doi:10.21313/hawaii/9780824836979.003.0013

Cited by 3 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…No clear legal definition of Ainu ethnicity was found in the act (Siddle, 2002). While the active promotion of Ainu language and culture found in the Act goes beyond some of the requirements of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, its weaknesses reside in the absence of concepts of Indigenous rights, political rights, and economic rights, restricting its focus to cultural promotion and dissemination (Stevens, 2014). The ACPA established the Foundation for the Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture based in Sapporo and supervised by the Hokkaido Development Agency and the Ministry of Education (Siddle, 2002).…”

Section: The Ainu Cultural Promotion Act and Institutional Layeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the Ainu officially identified represent less than half of one percent of the Japanese population. As a result, there exists a lack of awareness and education regarding ethnic and Indigenous minorities among the Wajin, and many of them do not understand minority rights (Stevens, 2014;Nakamura, 2015). The focus on culture has also participated in defining Indigeneity primarily in terms of a reified culture, leaving aside the political dimensions of it.…”

Section: International Leverage Political Entrepreneurship and Recogn...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given institutional barriers, an effective institutional form of leverage has been gaiatsu. Gaiatsu refers to the idea of "foreign pressure" in Japanese since the Japanese government being sensitive to its international reputation (Lewallen, 2008;Stevens, 2014). This mode of activism was used to gain recognition as Indigenous people, and currently serves as a vector for Indigenous rights' claims (Stevens, 2008(Stevens, , 2014.…”

Section: International Leverage Political Entrepreneurship and Recogn...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Ainu and Indigenous politics in Japan: negotiating agency, institutional stability, and change

Komai

2021

J. Race Ethnicity Politics

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In April 2019, the Japanese government officially legally recognized the Ainu as Indigenous people. Building on an institutionalist framework, the paper suggests that a phenomenon of institutional layering has taken place, resulting in tensions between the desire to preserve the legitimacy of old institutions and the pressure to develop more progressive policies. To explain this process, policy legacies, and institutional opportunities are relevant. First, the narrative that equality can be attained through assimilation, and the political construction of the “Ainu problem” as a regional one tied to Hokkaido pervade political imaginaries and institutions. Second, institutional opportunities have mediated the ways activists have sought to make their voices heard in the political arena. A focus on key historical segments illuminates the difficulty for activists to penetrate high-level political arenas while indicating the importance of agency, ties and interests in explaining major reforms and their limitations. The ambiguity that characterizes current policy framework points to the potential leverage that this policy configuration represents for the Ainu. At the same time, historical and institutional legacies that have shaped Indigenous politics continue to constrain, to a great extent, the possibilities for meaningful and transformative developments for the Ainu.

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Section: The Ainu Cultural Promotion Act and Institutional Layeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: International Leverage Political Entrepreneurship and Recogn...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: International Leverage Political Entrepreneurship and Recogn...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Ainu and Indigenous politics in Japan: negotiating agency, institutional stability, and change

Komai

2021

J. Race Ethnicity Politics

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“…This explains one of reasons why the Ainu is in a different phase of cultural revitalisation when compared to, for example, Maori in Aotearoa New Zealand, where the Maori cultural revitalisation was already taking place in the 1980s. It was only in the later 1980s and early 1990s that Ainu activists—such as the participation of the Hokkaido Ainu Association 13 at the UN WGIP 13 in 1987—joined the global movement (Stevens, 2014, p. 203). Although there has been Ainu cultural and political movements initiated domestically since before the 1980s, the joining of the Ainu as a global indigenous player in international indigenous politics had a great impact on improving their cultural and political conditions domestically.…”

Section: Comparative Side View—cross-cultural Pedagogy In Aotearoa Nementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within a Japanese context, Ainu cultural revitalisation is most often connected to cultural preservation —keeping what remains—or restoration —recovering what has been lost. A legal approach to Ainu culture can been seen, for example, in the Ainu Cultural Promotion Act (CPA) in 1997 (for more, see Siddle, 2003; Stevens, 2014). Besides the legal framework, there are traditional cultural activities supported by the Ainu Association of Hokkaido 3 in which 18 Ainu Hokkaido-based regional cultural preservation groups gather in each community to participate in monthly cultural practice (Agency for Cultural Affairs & National Institute of Informatics, n.d.).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What does Ainu cultural revitalisation mean to Ainu and Wajin youth in the 21st century? Case study of Urespa as a place to learn Ainu culture in the city of Sapporo, Japan

Uzawa

2019

AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples

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This article illustrates living experiences of Ainu cultural practices by the students of Urespa. Urespa is a self-motivated, non-profit social initiative or association founded in 2010 by Professor Honda Yuko at Sapporo University with the aim of bringing Ainu and Wajin students together in a curriculum-based environment to co-learn the Ainu language and Ainu cultural practices. In the Ainu language, urespa means “growing together”. The article draws on the author’s fieldwork with Urespa in Sapporo, Hokkaido, in 2016 in focusing on a new way of practising Ainu culture in an urban setting in the 21st century. The article, therefore, focuses on Ainu cultural revitalisation, everyday cultural practices, and on how it plays out within Urespa in a context of decolonisation and self-determination in Japan.

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Aïnous de Tokyo : une nouvelle géographie politique autochtone au Japon ?

Watson

Froment-Lebeau²

2014

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Historiquement, au Japon, les mesures politiques concernant les Aïnous ont toujours été restreintes au territoire d’Hokkaidō. Toutefois, en reconnaissant officiellement les Aïnous en tant que peuple autochtone du nord du Japon et de ses environs en 2008, le gouvernement a pris la décision sans précédent – et pourtant souvent négligée – d’inclure les Aïnous résidant hors du territoire d’Hokkaidō dans l’élaboration d’une politique nationale aïnoue. Cet article expose le rôle qu’a joué le mouvement politique aïnou à Tokyo au cours des quatre dernières décennies, dans une campagne visant l’égalité des droits des Aïnous indépendamment de leur lieu de résidence. Il aborde également les politiques trop bien connues qui sous-tendent la reconnaissance du peuple aïnou ; reconnaissance qui promettait beaucoup plus que ce que le gouvernement n’avait l’intention d’accomplir.Historically, Ainu policy measures in Japan have always been limited to Hokkaido. However, in the Japanese government’s recognition of the Ainu people as indigenous to northern Japan and its environs in 2008, the decision was made to include Ainu living outside of Hokkaido in negotiations over a national Ainu policy. In this paper, I survey the role played by the Ainu political movement in Tokyo in a forty years campaign aimed at equalizing the rights for Ainu irrespective of location and discuss the politics of the government’s new position

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The Ainu, Law, and Legal Mobilization, 1984–2009

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

The Ainu and Indigenous politics in Japan: negotiating agency, institutional stability, and change

The Ainu and Indigenous politics in Japan: negotiating agency, institutional stability, and change

What does Ainu cultural revitalisation mean to Ainu and Wajin youth in the 21st century? Case study of Urespa as a place to learn Ainu culture in the city of Sapporo, Japan

Aïnous de Tokyo : une nouvelle géographie politique autochtone au Japon ?

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