Japan's First National Ainu Museum Opens in Hokkaido

The Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park opened in Shiraoi, Hokkaido, in July 2020 as Japan's first national museum dedicated to an indigenous culture. The 100,000-square-meter complex includes exhibition spaces, a cultural meeting hall, a workshop, a craft atelier, and a reconstructed traditional Ainu village. The name 'Upopoy' means 'singing in a large group' in the Ainu language. The museum aims to correct misconceptions about the Ainu people and promote their culture, which was suppressed by over a century of assimilation policies. Japan's government only recognized the Ainu as an indigenous people in 2019 with the Ainu Recognition Bill. Despite the pandemic, the museum attracted 200,000 visitors by early 2021. Director Shiro Sasaki stated the museum's mission is to respect Ainu dignity and promote understanding of their history and culture. The park also includes a memorial for Ainu remains that were exhumed without consent for research; over 1,600 bodies or remains have yet to be repatriated. Tadashi Kato of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido expressed gratitude for efforts to revive Ainu culture despite ongoing issues. The Ainu people, originally hunter-gatherers from Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands, now number about 25,000 in Japan, but their language is nearly extinct. Jeffrey Gayman of Hokkaido University noted that few native speakers remain. The city name Shiraoi means 'rainbows' in Ainu, seen as a hopeful omen.