Ethnic minority and education
I found many students have interests in gender issues and each of them were worth thinking deeply about. I studied gender education for little children, so I am also interested in such issues. For example, goods for them, pink is used as the color for girls and blue is the one for boys. And other students proposed to create society like男性でも育休を取れる雰囲気, it’s essential for whole Japanese society because少子高齢化を防ぐためにも.
As for my research, since I was born in Hokkaido, I have been familiar with Ainu people. In school special classes, they told us about the traditional way they live and such music, and so on. After growing up, I realized they were a “minority” and there were some systems to help them. But my friends from other than Hokkaido, their value to Ainu is different from mine. Even though we all are Japanese, some think Ainuは教科書の中の存在だと. I think もしかするとアイヌの文化が消えてしまうかもしれない。 So, I will research effective ways to educate and tell the next generation about ethnic minorities, such as Ainu. I would like to compare with世界の少数民族 and research how to hand down the culture in the world and protect 当事者。
・How do the Japanese government plan to teach Ainu?
・What do Ainu people do to preserve their culture?
・How many ethnic minorities are there in the world?
I learned a lot of their general information, like the main distribution of Ainu people, their history, what they think, and Ainu language. According to minority rights group international, since around 14c, Ainu people started to feel pressure and they finally were recognized as an indigenous people in 2008.
I realized the hard experience of Ainu people even though the law for them was introduced, like others teased their roots. The most impressive story for me was that one of the Ainu women said, “I’ve decided not to get married with someone of the same roots because I don’t want my children to be bullied like me.”
Through this week’s research, I found the difficulties of changing other than当事者’s mind(当事者以外の心境). As I stated above, just setting law for Ainu doesn’t mean to eliminate something like prejudice against them. However, they claimed the importance of official recognition as a first step to live their own lives.
I am especially interested in the Ainu language. According to UNESCO, Ainu is a critically endangered language. It means, the youngest speakers are grandparents and older generations, so we need to find some solutions. On the other hand, the Ainu language is fascinating because of its mysterious beginnings. According to The World -a public radio program-, It is unrelated to any other language. The fact makes it impossible to establish where it, or the people who spoke it, came from. I want to learn this language more.
・How do Ainu people think of their history?(当事者視点の歴史)
・How can we preserve Ainu language?(海外の言語と比較・参考)
・How Ainu people live now（伝統と現代の生活の折り合い）
[References]
Japan’s Ainu, ALJAZEERA, 2010,
Ainu, minority rights group international, April 2018
https://minorityrights.org/minorities/ainu/
UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger,
http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php
In Japan, the Ainu language is largely unknown and unloved, but linguists are fascinated by its mysteries, The World, Patrick Cox, May 26, 2016,
I mainly researched the history from Ainu’s point of view this week. Their traditional way to live was living as hunter gatherers in family groups and believing their god named “kamuy”. However, Japanese started to intervene, adult men were forced to labor and young women were forced to live as mistress for Japanese men. As a result, Ainu families and communities were devastated. The typical used word “development開発” for Japanese was “invasion侵略” for Ainu people.
The next interesting article for me was the dialog between Ainu and Indian people. While Indian people have their reservation even in this modern society, Ainu do not have it. One of Ainu explained it due to the situation of many mixed bloods between Ainu and Japanese.
Next week, I would like to research today’s situation around Ainu, like how people whose roots in Ainu live in Tokyo, and other areas other than Hokkaido. And also, I want to add some comparison among Ainu and other native people around the world especially in language issue. In addition to them, I will seek what we can do for them to live with as “special” treatment.
In today’s class, I commented the “usual/ normal treatment” and “special treatment” and by listening to Mike’s reply to it, I’m interested in this difference and want to know what the best deal for minority is, so I will research the former in the next semester’s research.
Ainu Living in Tokyo- Getting to know the indigenous people of Japan, Dec 24, 2009,
https://www.japanfs.org/en/projects/sus_college/sus_college_id033828.html
Indian reservation, Wikipedia,
Japan’s Ainu seek help to preserve their native culture, Cultural Survival, June 2001,
In this week, I researched the Ainu language and how Ainu people live in Tokyo. I compared two types of argument in language disappearance. While some people insist the social Darwinism which means language loss is the same to species loss, others emphasize the conduits of wisdom.
In general, languages contain an accumulated body of knowledge, including about geography, zoology, navigation, pharmacy, and more. In the case of Ainu language, オオヨモギ have many medical properties and unique fragrance, Ainu people called it カムイノヤ: God noya.
As for Ainu people’s lives in Tokyo, I mainly focused on one of the Ainu women, who runs a restaurant that serves Ainu cuisine at 新大久保. In addition to the restaurant, she works to share the culture of the Ainu people through song, dance and embroidery.
According to the Ainu organization working in the metropolitan area, it is estimated that at least 5000 to 10000 people live in the metropolitan area. In addition, according to the cabinet office’s survey in 2011, 133 of 142 responds of the Ainu people indicated that their work utilizes Ainu culture. I learned their lives has become quite similar to us, just like we all have different way of life. In Tokyo, アイヌ文化交流センター promote communication between not only Ainu, but also Ainu to non-Ainu people.
I learned today’s Ainu, and some support way for them.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140606-why-we-must-save-dying-languages
https://www.hokudai.ac.jp/fsc/bg/pdf/letter2020.pdf
https://gendai.ismedia.jp/articles/-/54318?page=3
https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/ainusuishin/jittaichousa/houkokusho.pdf
https://www.ff-ainu.or.jp/web/overview/business/business_center.html
In Yuika’s presentation, I learned that we need some legislation for LGBTQ+ students. The local government’s plan was interesting for me because it was the first time to know specific content on such a scale. 淀川区 hand out leaflets to not only 当事者, but also to their families and even doctors. This idea consider the impact on wider range of people (means not only 当事者), so it may be useful when we think of diversity and equality in Japan.
In Ryoko’s presentation, I was a little bit surprised because I have never wonder “marriage” itself, so it was new perspective that I didn’t have. I reminded that after the big disaster like 東日本大震災, people tended to support the patriarchy that men should work and women should do housework, so I thought patriarchy can be changed in unexpected ways even the time has passed. In addition, I also surprised that individual registers are not kept with the family unit in many other countries and understood how Japan emphasizes the role of marriage as a way to expand the family.
As a discussion question for my presentation, Jain explained how Korean education curriculum define to teach North-Korean language. Following that, we can come up with a new way to preserve Ainu language, like add it to Japanese class(国語), not just establishing language school.
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In Jain’s presentation, the photo of a female lawmaker bringing her baby to Congress was impressive. It briefly explains the situation and how difficult for women to work as a lawmaker. I thought such lack of tolerance also comes from Japanese original social strictness. But we need to change this even if only gradually.
As for Shiori’s presentation, I was surprised that in the UK, companies have LGBT+ employee network. I realized how far behind the Japan’s system is. I believe that all people, not just LGBT+, feel more comfortable with others who have something in common. This may be connected to other minority issues to think about diversity.
Himika’s presentation was interesting for me because I researched language related issue in my Ainu study and I am a speaker of 北海道弁. She said many 方言 don’t have writing system, and my research indicates that the writing itself is relatively new, so I felt that was a connection. In addition, I totally agree the idea that is all of us have equal rights to express in our own words because most familiar 言葉(words, languages) is the best way to express what I am thinking in precise.
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In Tomu’s presentation, she said “To hand down our culture, we need Okinawan language.” It was connected to my research of Ainu culture, and I think so, too. Each language has its special words which has a meaning not found in other languages.
As for Toshi’s one, the voice of 当事者 made me think about the issues from their point of view. In addition, he said US’s media has good effect on people, but Japan’s one is the opposite in LGBT+ issue, but I don’t think so because we cannot divide them into two completely. Some media may treat them like that both in US and Japan, but I saw US’s drama had scenes of extreme teasing of 当事者, and I sometimes fell Japanese media is overly sensitive about gender. Anyway, media affects us a lot, we need to think how to live with it in any other issue.
Chisaki’s presentation had a great impact on me because it’s comparison between Japan and other countries was concise and to the point. I thought gender bias is improving compared to the past, so it’s at least an incremental change. However, its way of thinking is deeply connected to people’s values, it’s difficult to change instantly.
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In today class, I thought about what we could do to make them proud of Ainu ethnicity with one of the 1st grade students. A history of oppression has made Ainu people ashamed and afraid of their culture.
In addition, I was impressed of Mina-san’s presentation because she is active in her beliefs. I want to be like her and hope to learn a lot from her during this zemi.
Next cycle, I will research inclusive education because I want to get more knowledge of education issue. Especially I’m interested in children with disabilities, foreign roots, and so on. I would like to consider equality of treatment between regular and special needs classes’ students. As for students with foreign roots, the same could be said for. I think we can think of them in two ways: equality as a result or equality as a means.
Today, I saw the news of ex-convict: 元犯罪者. That gave me some awareness like they also can be the minority and be looked at with prejudice. However, I thought it difficult to relate to them because they are a special kind of person who is difficult to tolerate and live with. This topic may be incorporated into the next cycle’s research a bit if I focus on children’s crime.
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