Der Weg zum neuen Ainu-Gesetz (Teil 2)

Abstract

This essay is the second part of a two-part series. Part one, which appeared in ZJapanR / J.Japan.L. 52 (2021) 163–222, traced the history of the law up to the first drafting of an Ainu law by the Utari Association in April 1984. This draft proposal laid the foundation for the Ainu Cultural Promotion Act of 1997 and eventually for the Ainu Policy Promotion Act of 2019, which replaced it. A preliminary note identifies some important factors behind the development of both laws. The round tables appointed by various executive bodies were one such important factor in the legislative process. Another was the debate, both domestic and international, over whether the Ainu were an ethnic minority at all, and whether they were indigenous. A third factor was the question of political participation by the Ainu. The fourth and final factor to be discussed is the discrimination and disadvantages the Ainu suffered, as well as the issue of academic exploitation, especially the theft of Ainu remains. The essay then goes on to describe each of the two laws in a similar manner: an explanation of the content of each law is followed by an account of the parliamentary debate over it and, ultimately, its implementation. Because these debates constitute such important legislative material, this essay offers a relatively detailed account of them.