They once occupied the whole of what is now Japan, possessing a neolithic culture based on hunting and fishing. Through many centuries they were conquered, assimilated, and driven north by the ancestors of Japanese. They are now confined to Hokkaido, the Kuriles and the southern portion of Saghalin. At its best, the Japanese treatment of the Ainu appears to have been unsympathetic, at its worst brutal. Protective legislation passed in the Meiji era was not properly carried out by officials. The Ainu have progressively lost their land and their fishing sites. They have always been looked on and treated as inferior by the Japanese, with a few individual exceptions. Most of the Ainu culture has now disappeared, the bear ceremony being an important exception. Japanizing has been proceeding in Hokkaido for some seventy years and is now extensive. The Ainu language is now scarcely used. The present Ainu population is stated by the Ainus themselves to be 17,000. It is impossible to determine the percentage of pure Ainus in this population. Recent estimates range from three to twenty per cent. The majority possess a standard of living considerably below that of the average Japanese. They are farmers, farm labourers, fishermen, and casual workers. Housing is poor. Very few have education beyond the primary level; some have no education. Tubercular and venereal diseases are common, also trachoma.

Interesting information was obtained concerning the formation in 1946 of the Hokkaido Ainu Association, the purpose of which is to plan “elevation, development, welfare and regeneration of Ainu.” A translated copy of a petition presented to the Japanese government by the Association in 1946 contains much interesting material regarding the present state of the Ainu. The petition asks in the main for more and better land, more education and for medical services. The Ainu Association presents some interesting parallels with the Young Maori Party, though the condition of the Ainu has deteriorated much more. The Association is impressive evidence of the persistence of racial and group feelings and of the strong motives underlying nativistic movements. The reception of a non-Japanese visitor by the Ainu was most friendly.