4 ms·

I thought the Ainu people were the original inhabitants of much of Japan? Or am I mistaken?

• naniwaduni 6y ago
  The Ainu are believed to be descendants of the Joumon and related peoples, whose presence in the Japanese archipelago indeed precedes the introduction of the Yayoi people who are thought to be the main stock of the currently dominant ethnic group of Japan. The thing is, though, the latter arrivals were some 2~3000 years ago. For comparison, the Yayoi incursion not only predates not only the entire traceable history of the Inuit people, but also that of the (unrelated) Dorset culture that they're believed to have driven out. I'm not sure there's a principled metric by which Canada's whalers are "Indigenous peoples following their traditional ways" and nearly all Japanese people aren't.
  • cgh 6y ago
    I agree with you. The whole "we were here first" argument tends to fall apart at a certain time horizon, almost like there's a statute of limitations on what constitutes "indigenous".
  • ficklepickle 6y ago
    Because the aboriginal people don't take more than they need and they use the entire animal. The Japanese are doing it for the meat ($$$) exclusively. Let's give the people that haven't destroyed their own environment a bit of leeway. IMO, a marker of intelligence isn't building rockets, it's not shitting where you eat.