Sapporo – A group of Ainu indigenous people in Hokkaido, northern Japan, has started a lawsuit demanding that the remains of 279 Ainu ancestors held by a state facility be returned to their descendants.
The suit was filed Friday with Sapporo District Court in Hokkaido’s capital by the group of Ainu descendants living in their kotan settlements in the town of Shinhidaka and nearby. The group, called Shibechari Ainu Tribe, was established in 2019.
The remains in question are stored in a memorial facility at the National Ainu Museum and Park, or Upopoy, which is managed by the land ministry.
In the complaint, the plaintiffs said that the Ainu people have a custom of holding funerals and burials in kotan settlements and that they have no concept of individuals holding ownership rights over human remains.
International law recognizes the right of kotan settlements to take care of such remains, the plaintiffs said, adding that the right rests with the plaintiffs, who are descendants.
The remains had been removed from what is now Shinhidaka by Hokkaido University, the University of Tokyo and others in the past for research purposes. The universities waived their rights to the remains when they were transferred to the memorial facility.
Tsutomu Takatsuki, who chairs the Ainu organization, told a news conference after filing the suit that the government’s guidelines for the return of remains deny the Ainu’s rights.
“The suit holds a major significance in that it’s intended to assert our rights and realize the return,” he said.
AloJapan.com