The Ainu
 

Oh, I actually was under the impression that Japan was one of the few states in the world that was also a unified nation-state...

Originally posted by Traianvs
Oh, I actually was under the impression that Japan was one of the few states in the world that was also a unified nation-state...
Scary, isn't it? An entire race, that still exists today in a developed country, that's pretty much unknown in the wider world.

According to the Wikipedia article they seem to be clearly Oriental genetically, yet in the past I've read of them as being classified as Caucasian.

I find the Ainu interesting too... I think my father mentioned them to me when I was a kid (he'd been to Japan several times on business).

I didn't realize they were discriminated against... how so? Are they shunted off into shitty "reservations" and generally pissed on except they're allowed to run casinos? Oh, wait...

-Arrian

I hope that you meant to say Japan.

Something I was told, (not about ainus but related) is that japan also has a lower caste, like the dalits of india, (altough the cagots of france and north spain are a better example I think)

Something few people know about.
A japanese woman wouldnt let her daughter marry someone from this caste.

Nowadays there is racism in japan against japanese-latin americans who return to japan, even if they have remained ethnically japanese 100%, because people from that low caste made a big bunch of the japanese who emigrated to south america (they were obviously trying to escape the situation they were in), so these returning people are suspect.

I knew there were older inhabitants of Japan than the Japanese. I didn't know their name though. But I thought there were more than one of those aboriginal people?