Ainu rise up from the margins of Japanese society

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Nessie at 10:23 AM JST - 23rd August

Are we sure they always staid gently in this God forlorn island, so as not to aggravate the other ethnic group (or groups), or have they been indigenous to a large part of Honshu and later on pushed back to the North and finally corralled in Hokkaido ?

As a resident of this "God forlorn island", I'll say it's a good point that Ainu used to live also in much of Honshu. But the idea of their being pushed back and coralled is baseless bluster.
TPOJ at 10:50 AM JST - 23rd August

Agreed. But who decides when the threat is credible?

Well, it's really a case by case thing. There's no perfect system here, but basically, the best way to figure it out is...what we're doing here. Talking about it, making sure there's actually a problem, making sure it's not just the whining of people losing an advantage they were used to (but weren't really entitled to.)

And thank you for being less of a dick than I was ;)
YangYong at 02:10 PM JST - 23rd August

Forgoing the 'rat' there's only one race, the human one. Stop being so neo-Darwinist.
jwills79 at 05:00 PM JST - 23rd August

Badtz Proper wrote: Advantages such as? Explain to me these advantages, please, and compare and contrast to a mostly homogeneous society? While your telling me this Japan is busy supplementing its declining birthrate with robots, selling top quality products, and entertaining the world with its animation industry. Brazil is extremely diverse..why isn't it dominating the world? I dont see any game consoles coming out of Colombia or Egypt. Level playing field? By undermining the native population and by giving hand outs to to a growing impoverished minority population who mostly has no desire to assimilate only dominate? Sounds like a fun game.

First of all most the modern Japan we see today is mainly do to the reset button which took place after WWII. After the Americans came in, they were leap frogged into the industrial age. A chain reaction that echoed to all the other countries they touched during their campaign. (Korea, China. Phillipines etc.)

The reason why they are leaders in technology is because their culture are so open to embracing such things. Countries where it is not as important focus on other priorities. It has nothing to do with a homogenous culture but economics. (Supply&Demand, allocation of resources)Maybe if America did the same to Brazil and later rebuilt it then your gaming consoles would be coming from country known for sexy women with nice butts.

Another example: I worked for Olympus R&D department a few years ago. Fields like engineering and science are not popular professions in Japan. Most of the research on all this technology Japan creates which you contribute to a homogenous society, largely comes from foreigners working there. The head of the projects are usually Japanese for obvious reasons. But the breakthroughs were usually created by foreigners who were contracted for research. It was also indicative of another company I worked for that was a subsidiary of Fujitsu. That is the advantage of diversity. New ideas and ways to solve problems to provide the best demand gaming system in the world.

Like someone else said Japan is good about sweeping secrets under the rug.
kimigano at 01:37 AM JST - 24th August

I am for giving the Ainu all of their native land.
AlliedForces at 01:39 AM JST - 24th August

I don`t want to take land from anyone. Ainu can do as they wish.
SiouxGirl at 05:56 AM JST - 24th August

What is happening to the Ainu has already happened to my peeps. Do you really think we can some day accept one another and live peacefully? Or is that all just a pipe dream? Are we ultimately much too aggressive for such cooperation? The people of the earth are all one people. Will there be a day when we realize the truth of that?
oberst at 04:34 AM JST - 25th August

Kosovo or S. Ossetia ? If the Ainu were to break away from Japan and reclaim Hokkaido, what do you think the West will do? Take the Kosovo route ( invade/bomb Japan ) or S.Ossetia way( helps the japanese Government to suppress Ainu culture, i.e. genocide in a sweet and slow way ) ? If Japanese support tibet independence from China, would they also support Ainu independence from Japan ?

pass the sake please.
Badtz_Proper at 03:28 PM JST - 25th August

And thank you for being less of a dick than I was ;)

Internet arguments get nasty sometimes :D

First of all most the modern Japan we see today is mainly do to the reset button which took place after WWII. After the Americans came in, they were leap frogged into the industrial age. A chain reaction that echoed to all the other countries they touched during their campaign. (Korea, China. Phillipines etc.)

The reason why they are leaders in technology is because their culture are so open to embracing such things. Countries where it is not as important focus on other priorities. It has nothing to do with a homogenous culture but economics. (Supply&Demand, allocation of resources)Maybe if America did the same to Brazil and later rebuilt it then your gaming consoles would be coming from country known for sexy women with nice butts.

Another example: I worked for Olympus R&D department a few years ago. Fields like engineering and science are not popular professions in Japan. Most of the research on all this technology Japan creates which you contribute to a homogenous society, largely comes from foreigners working there. The head of the projects are usually Japanese for obvious reasons. But the breakthroughs were usually created by foreigners who were contracted for research. It was also indicative of another company I worked for that was a subsidiary of Fujitsu. That is the advantage of diversity. New ideas and ways to solve problems to provide the best demand gaming system in the world.

Like someone else said Japan is good about sweeping secrets under the rug.

Sounds like the system you just described to me works pretty well, its a way of embracing the benefits of diversity without an exploding foreign population. Japan seems to be doing well without importing labor from the third world. Bring in engineers from all over the world to help you develop robots to fill the labor gap without importing cheap factory workers from all over the world, sounds like a good plan.

As for the Ainu, I still feel they should promote their culture as part of Japan, not separate from it.
Badtz_Proper at 03:33 PM JST - 25th August

What is happening to the Ainu has already happened to my peeps. Do you really think we can some day accept one another and live peacefully? Or is that all just a pipe dream? Are we ultimately much too aggressive for such cooperation? The people of the earth are all one people. Will there be a day when we realize the truth of that?

Yeah the day Buddhism becomes the worlds dominant religion, but until that day comes yes it is a pipe dream apparently.
DanManjt at 12:41 AM JST - 26th August

As a resident of this "God forlorn island", I'll say it's a good point that Ainu used to live also in much of Honshu. But the idea of their being pushed back and coralled is baseless bluster.

Nessie

If you think the Ainu used to live throughout all of Honshu, how do you explain current demographics? They just up and left?
DanManjt at 12:45 AM JST - 26th August

ProudKoreanguy

Korea and Japan use their nationalist myths of ethnic purity to bind their respective nations together. But myths aside, Korea and Japan are not mono-ethic. There are no mono-ethnic nations. The world is a bit more complex than national myths. All nations are comprised of multi-ethnic populations.

All.
DanManjt at 12:47 AM JST - 26th August

In fact, in Koreas case, they don't even have a united nation. Indeed, Korea has never really been a unified nation-state. Never.

Perhaps that is why Koreans are so nationalistic.
ProudKoreanGuy at 12:54 AM JST - 26th August

DanManjt, If Korea was not mono-ethnic, then it certainly was monocultural - and still is, to a great extent. Now, you may refute that as well by citing that Korea's or Japan's culture is just some vartiation of cultures adopted from elsewhere. However, if you want to be that specific, then either terminology has no meaning or purpose, at all, and it should not be used. But, these two terms are used frequently by both media and academia everywhere, so what gives?
DanManjt at 01:59 AM JST - 26th August

ProudKoreanGuy

Korea is and never has been mono-ethnic, mono-cultural, or mono-linguistic. Within the penninsula there always has been diversity. Nowadays, Cheju most notably belies the assumed racial cultural and linguistic uniformity promoted my the nationalist myth.

The same nationalist myth that promotes the preposterous idea that the Chousan Dynasty was a nation-state.

It was not.