What are Ainu Indigenous rights? How are they discussed in Japan and internationally?

Dr. Uzawa shares her personal experiences, “throughout my participation at the UN meetings and other international forums, I came to realize the general lack of Ainu participation and voice, especially the youth. Whose voice is represented in such a forum and by whom? This triggered my curiosity, and I pursued a reason behind it by being actively involved in the Ainu rights movement in Japan and internationally as an undergraduate student. I have been an active member in the Ainu community in Hokkaido and Tokyo since the late 1990s. I am a member of the Association of Rera in Tokyo, an important Ainu cultural organization that revitalizes Ainu culture and disseminates Ainu culture to the public. At that time, I was personally mentored by a group of Japanese law professors in International Law on the mechanisms of the United Nations and the history of the international Indigenous peoples’ movement. This training led me to represent urban Ainu and Ainu youth at the United Nations on several occasions (UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Working Group on Indigenous Populations). In Japan, discussion about Ainu Indigenous rights is generally less discussed than cultural preservation. This can be seen by the content of the past law: the Law for the Promotion of the Ainu Culture and for the Dissemination and Advocacy for the Traditions of the Ainu and the Ainu Culture (the so-called Ainu Cultural Promotion Act) in 1997, and the new Ainu law: A Resolution for Promoting Measures for the Actualization of the Ethnic Pride of the Ainu People in 2019. Here, AinuToday aims to provide current and ongoing discussions concerning Ainu Indigenous rights. At the same time, it also attempts to include information on  wide ranging Ainu cultural revitalization activities, which play an essential role in contributing to the Ainu Indigenous rights discourse.”