Current Situation
The Ainu fight against racial discrimination
The most Ainu are living in Hokkaido today. The fight against racial discrimination and searching their identities were initiated in 1960's and has continued until today. The national and international movement of civil and human rights influenced the Ainu to speak up in the Japanese society. The contacts with Chinese minority and the Inuit has inspired and strengthened them to redefine their rights in the said to be homogeneity nation, Japan. Since 1960's, the Hokkaido prefectural government offered the Ainu good support including providing housing, education and environment programs. The strong tie with the Hokkaido government and effort resulted in the new Ainu law issued in 1997.

The Current Status of the Ainu
According to the survey conducted by the Hokkaido government in October, 1999, 26% of the Ainu had experienced some sort of discrimination at schools, workplaces, or regarding to marriage. As we can observe in the below, the educational proceeding rate had significantly improved since 1972; the difference of entering rate to the high school between the Ainu and the Japanese in Hokkaido is only 2% while there is still a gap for the continuation to higher education.  3.72% of the Ainu population were able to receive the welfare benefits by 1999. So, it could be an indication that there is still economic hardship for the Ainu for maintaining the Japanese standard of living.
 

 
J. H. School to HighSchool
  
High School to College
  
Year
Ainu (%)
All Hokkaido (%)
Ainu (%)
All Hokkaido (%)
1972
41.6
78.2
-
-
1979
69.3
90.2
8.8
31.1
1986
78.4
94.0
8.1
27.4
1993
87.4
96.3
11.8
27.5
1999
95.0
97.0
16.1
34.5
Figure 3
 


Figure 4

Introduction
Origin
History
Tradition
Conclusion
Bibliography