Ainu in modern Japanese society: the problem of returning the remains of ancestors

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-113
Author(s):  
Ekaterina S. Chekunkova

The article is devoted to the issue of repatriation of Ainu ancestral remains, collected by Japanese researchers in the second half of the 19th - 20th centuries. It is the most crucial current issue for many Ainu people who are trying to regain the language, the distinct culture, and identity. The article analyzes the positions of the Japanese Government, the Hokkaido Ainu Association and Ainu rights activist groups and movements. The article examines the contradictions that arose in Japanese society concerning the process of repatriation. Discussions in Japanese society during this problem were analyzed, and its significance for the Ainu communities is revealed. It was found that the discussions mainly arise in connection with the idea of transferring the remains to the memorial hall located in Symbolic Spaces for Ethnic Harmony, which was opened in July 2020. Research also showed that the problem under study is largely related to limitations in ethnic policy implementation and realization of indigenous peoples rights in Japan. In addition, the process of repatriation of Ainu ancestral remains is compounded by the lack of unity of the Ainu as a community. Therefore, reaching agreement between the government, the academic community, and critical Ainu rights activist groups proved extremely difficult. However, it was concluded that there is a potential to resolve the issue and consensus could be reached in the near future.

Polar Record ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naohiro Nakamura

ABSTRACTThis commentary reviews Maruyama's article ‘Japan's post-war Ainu policy: why the Japanese Government has not recognised Ainu indigenous rights?’ (Maruyama 2013a), published in this journal. Maruyama criticises the government for its reluctance to enact a new Ainu law to guarantee indigenous rights, even after Japan's ratification of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). However, in actuality, the government is searching for the foundation of new Ainu policies in the existing legal frameworks and trying to guarantee some elements of indigenous rights. Japan's case suggests the possibility of realising indigenous rights without the enactment of a specific law.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66
Author(s):  
Ni Putu Rianti Sukma Nanda ◽  
Joko Purnomo

This study examines Japan's historical revisionism related to the Nanjing Massacre during its 1937 invasion in the People's Republic of China. In 2015, UNESCO's response to include the Nanjing Massacre in the "Memory of the World Register" received backlash from Abe's government, resulting in a budget suspension from Japan. Japan wanted to be seen as a good country, leaving behind its past image as a war aggressor through historical revisionism. Using the concept of Shared Beliefs and Therapeutic Value, this article analyses homogeneous Japanese society that regards the Nanjing Massacre as something the Japanese government should not be apologetic about and the heterogeneous historical facts of the massacre itself. Finding suggests that Therapeutic Value from the denial comes from the failure of the U.S. and its allies to provide a deterrent effect post-WWII that resulted in victimization and melodrama promoted by the Japanese government. The government also uses narratives such as Toa Renmei Ron and Kami no Kuni as the main argument to boost Japanese superiority as a country. However, such revisionist strategy of the Nanjing Massacre is proven a failure to promote peace among the younger generation.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Febri Ramdani

ABSTRAKMUHAMAD FEBRI RAMDANI. Implementasi Kebijakan Agraria dan Ketimpangan Penguasaan Lahan (Kasus Lahan Eks HGU di Desa Cipeuteuy, Kecamatan Kabandungan, Kabupaten Sukabumi, Provinsi Jawa Barat). Dibimbing oleh MARTUA SIHALOHO.Redistribusi lahan yang dilakukan oleh pemerintah sebuah upaya implementasi kebijakan agraria. Kebijakan agraria tersebut berupa asset reform (penataan aset) eks lahan perkebunan dengan skema legalisasi aset berwujud sertifikasi bidang lahan. Namun dalam pelaksanannya pemerintah mengklaim bahwa kebijakan tersebut merupakan agenda reforma agraria. Atas dasar klaim tersebut, penting untuk meninjau access reform (penataan akses) bekerja, karena pada hakikatnya reforma agraria merupakan asset reform (penataan aset) dan access reform (penataan akses) yang berjalan beriringan, dengan bertujuan untuk menata ketimpangan penguasaan lahan agar terwujudnya keadilan agraria (agrarian justice). Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan metode kuantitatif yang didukung kualitatif dengan pendekatan sensus. Metode yang digunakan untuk menentukan responden ialah purposive sampling dengan teknik non probability sampling. Pengolahan data menggunakan uji statistik rank spearman untuk melihat hubungan variabel. Hasil penelitian yang diperoleh menunjukan bahwa tingkat asset reform berada pada kategori rendah. Hasil uji statistik menunjukan bahwa asset reform berhubungan dengan access reform dan asset reform berhubungan dengan ketimpangan penguasaan lahan.Kata kunci: access reform, asset reform, keadilan agraria, reforma agrariaABSTRACTMUHAMAD FEBRI RAMDANI. Implementation of Agrarian Policy and Land Tenure Inequality (Case of Ex-HGU Land in Cipeuteuy Village, Kabandungan District, Sukabumi Regency, West Java Province). Supervised by MARTUA SIHALOHO.Land redistribution has been done by government as an effort of agrarian policy implementation. The policy came in form of asset reform of ex-plantation land with asset legalization scheme (land-part certification). But the government claimed that this policy is one of the agrarian reform agenda. It is important to observe how this access reform works, because agrarian and access reform can’t be separated one another, with purpose to reduce the inequality of land tenure so that the agrarian justice can be reach. This research used quantitative method supported by qualitative data, using the census approachment. Purposive sampling with non probabilty sampling used to specify the respondent. The data processed by rank spearman statistic test to analyze the relation between variable. This research shows a low level of asset reform. The statistic test shows that the low asset reform have a strong relation to low access reform, and high inequality of land tenure.Key words: access reform, agrarian justice, agrarian reform, asset reform


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (Especial) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Dante Choque-Caseres

In Latin America, based on the recognition of Indigenous Peoples, the identification of gaps or disparities between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous population has emerged as a new research interest. To this end, capturing Indigenous identity is key to conducting certain analyses. However, the social contexts where the identity of Indigenous persons are (re)produced has been significantly altered. These changes are generated by the assimilation or integration of Indigenous communities into dominant national cultures. Within this context, limitations emerge in the use of this category, since Indigenous identity has a political and legal component related to the needs of the government. Therefore, critical thought on the use of Indigenous identity is necessary in an epistemological and methodological approach to research. This article argues that research about Indigenous Peoples should evaluate how Indigenous identity is included, for it is socially co-produced through the interaction of the State and its institutions. Thus, it would not necessarily constitute an explicative variable. By analyzing the discourse about Aymara Indigenous communities that has emerged in the northern border of Chile, this paper seeks to expose the logic used to define identity. Therefore, I conclude that the process of self-identification arises in supposed Indigenous people, built and/or reinforced by institutions, which should be reviewed from a decolonizing perspective and included in comparative research.


2021 ◽  
pp. 016059762110015
Author(s):  
Tracey A. Bone ◽  
Erin Wilkinson ◽  
Danielle Ferndale ◽  
Rodney Adams

In the growing field of colonial and anti-colonial research, many parallels have been drawn between Westernized countries including Australia and Canada. In both of these countries, there is considerable academic, community and governmental recognition of historic, and continuing, colonizing of Indigenous peoples and the subsequent impacts on Indigenous cultures. Terms such as transgenerational trauma and intergenerational trauma give language to the ongoing impact of colonization on communities, which in turn serves to legitimize the need for mental wellbeing supports and associated funding. However, there are other minority communities that are similarly oppressed and colonized but do not experience the same legitimization. One such community is the Deaf community. Deaf people continue to experience systemic oppression and colonization within our hearing centric society. Building on the work of Batterbury, Ladd and Gulliver (2007), we extend discussions on the parallels between Indigenous and Deaf communities of Australia and Canada, drawing on the established and commonly discussed link between the impact of racism and colonization on (mental) health. We connect these discussions to modern instances of colonization including the aspect of deaf education to illustrate a “living” mechanism through which colonization continues to impact mental wellbeing in the broader Deaf community.


2018 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 109-133
Author(s):  
Senem Aydın-Düzgit ◽  
Evren Balta

AbstractThis article aims to explore the views of the Turkish elite on the state of polarization in Turkey. By identifying four political frames—namely, harmony, continuity/decline, conspiracy, and conflict—that selected Turkish political and civil society elites use in discussing the phenomenon of polarization in the country through their contributions to a workshop and in-depth qualitative interviews, the article finds that there is a considerable degree of polarization among the Turkish elite regarding their views on the presence of polarization in Turkey. Moreover, this overlaps with the divide between the government and the opposition in the country. An analysis of the justificatory arguments employed in constituting the aforementioned frames shows that, while those elites who deny the existence of polarization seek its absence in essentialist characteristics of society, in reductionist comparisons with history, or in internal/external enemies, those who acknowledge polarization’s presence look for its roots in political and institutional factors and processes. The article highlights how, given the denial of polarization by the pro-government elite and the substantial gap between the two camps’ justificatory narratives, the currently reported high rates of polarization in Turkey can, at best, be expected to remain as is in the near future, barring a radical change in political constellations.


1954 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
Annette Rosenstiel

In its program for underdeveloped areas, the United Nations faces on a large scale the need to effect concrete adaptations of the habits of indigenous peoples to modern knowledge and technology. Research to determine the best methods of procedure has disclosed that, in certain areas, previous attempts on the part of administrators to introduce innovations and make changes which could not be integrated into the cultural pattern of the indigenous people proved unsatisfactory to them and costly to the government concerned. In most cases, changes in diet, crops and habits of work—let alone the introduction of industrial disciplines—may not be pressed down like a cookie-cutter on a going society. The administration of change often proves a disconcertingly stubborn affair, exasperating both to the administrator and to the people whom he seeks to catch up into the ways of "progress."


Medicina ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Yosuke Fujii ◽  
Hiroki Daijo ◽  
Kiichi Hirota

Background and objectives: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread to more than 200 countries. In light of this situation, the Japanese Government declared a state of emergency in seven regions of Japan on 7 April 2020 under the provisions of the law. The medical care delivery system has been under pressure. Although various surgical societies have published guidelines on which to base their surgical decisions, it is not clear how general anesthesia has been performed and will be performed in Japan. Materials and Methods: One of the services provided by the social network service Twitter is a voting function—Twitter Polls—through which anonymous surveys were conducted. We analyzed the results of a series of surveys 17 times over 22 weeks on Twitter on the status of operating restrictions using quadratic programming to solve the mathematical optimizing problem, and public data provided by the Japanese Government were used to estimate the current changes in the number of general anesthesia performed in Japan. Results: The minimum number of general anesthesia cases per week was estimated at 67.1% compared to 2015 on 27 April 2020. The timeseries trend was compatible with the results reported by the Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists (correlation coefficient r = 0.69, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The number of general anesthesia was reduced up to two-thirds during the pandemic of COVID-19 in Japan and was successfully quantitatively estimated using a quick questionnaire on Twitter.


2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ainura Elebayeva ◽  
Nurbek Omuraliev ◽  
Rafis Abazov

The main objective of the ethnic policy of the government of Kyrgyzstan in the post-Soviet era was a consolidation of all people and ethnic groups on the territory of the Republic into the Kyrgyzstani nation. Such a goal is important for any nation that has just gained independence, but for the Kyrgyz Republic it was an especially important task for several reasons. First, the multiethnic composition of the country: in 1991 the Kyrgyzs, or the titular nation of the Republic, constituted roughly 52% of the population, there were around 22% Russians, and the Uzbeks represented 13% of the population. Second, interethnic relations in the Republic were especially tense at the beginning of the 1990s because of the interethnic conflicts in the southern regions of the Republic in 1989 and 1990.1 Third, the Kyrgyzs themselves lacked national cohesiveness and they often defined themselves as members of different tribes or tribal groups with distinct dialects, dress, and political affiliations.


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