A new political party is to be formed early next year in Hokkaido, which aims to give political representation for the Ainu community. The representative will be Shiro Kayano, whose father is the first Ainu to become a member of the Diet. According to the party, they claim that there has not been enough policies implemented to preserve the Ainu culture and community identity.

Indeed, Ainu has long been deprived of legitimate political rights or representation. There is a history of Ainu oppression under Japanese control, and forcing them to abandon practicing or preserving their culture. The Japanese government never publically recognized Ainu as an ethnic minority until 1997. Even then, the governmental advisory board that developed 1997 Ainu Culture Law, Shingikai, did not have a single Ainu person in the committee. It was not until 2008 that Ainu was officially recognized as indigenous to Japan.

It is obvious that the Ainu need more political attention: not in words but in policies. According to Asahi Shimbun, the formation of the party emerged from heightened discontent among Ainu because of the failure of state authority to delivery of public policies for the Ainu.

For any ethnic minority, a proper political representation is an important step for forming a strong cornerstone for the community, and it is the responsibility of all democratic societies to provide such opportunity. In the case of Ainu, however, I wonder if an “ethnic party” could create a greater separation between Ainu and non-Ainu—and if a true representation is even possible.

According to the news article, the candidates for the next election are going to be (but not limited to) Ainu. However, it is difficult to know who is Ainu or not because the Ainu community has been actively promoting intermarriages between Japanese and Ainu in order to lessen the burden of discrimination against their children. Therefore, many people of the Ainu community today would have both Ainu and Japanese identities. Moreover, the Ainu community in Japan is not strictly regional; there is a vibrant Ainu community in Tokyo as well as several places across Hokkaido. Could there be a negative impact on the rest of the society? If there are so many Ainu that are not necessarily “fully” Ainu, how should the new political party reflect this? Is it possible that people of both Ainu and Japanese descent would face a pressure of having to choose one identity over the other?

I believe that the Ainu community needs to have their voices heard properly, and that formation of a political party is a significant step towards a better Ainu community life. This will probably also cause a lot of debates and strong emotions to be aroused within the Ainu community, as well as with the greater Japanese community—so that we could finally evolve as a whole.

(Source: http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1029/TKY201110290538.html)

by Nanako Kurioka