Overview
- Seven Ainu ancestral remains returned from London’s Natural History Museum arrived in Hokkaido and are slated for storage at Upopoy, the state-run Ainu museum and memorial in Shiraoi.
- On the same day, the Shibechari Ainu Tribe filed the first lawsuit seeking the return of remains from Upopoy, asking the Sapporo District Court to order the state to hand back 279 individuals taken from Shinhidaka and nearby communities.
- The plaintiffs say Ainu funerary custom centers on the kotan, or local community, and argue international law recognizes community rights to manage ancestors’ remains, which they claim belong under their stewardship.
- Government guidelines limit returns to groups that can show “reliable memorial rites” and require written plans for ceremonies, a policy the plaintiffs and Hokkaido Shimbun’s editorial board criticize as denying Ainu self-determination; only about 30 of more than 1,600 remains at Upopoy have been returned so far.
- Of the seven remains from the UK, four were taken from Yakumo and Mori, two from the Kuril Islands, and one has no confirmed origin, with donation records dated 1866–1911; overseas repatriations of Ainu remains remain rare and often hinge on scant provenance.