SAPPORO--The president of Nippon Television Network Corp. apologized for a program in which a comedian used a derogatory word referring to Japan's indigenous Ainu ethnic minority of Hokkaido.

The Ainu believe that the world rests on the back of a giant trout, that otters caused human beings to be flawed, and that seeing an owl fly across the face of the moon at night is cause for great ...

The immediate predecessors of the Ainu, who are the native people of northeastern Japan, occupied the site. Many archeologists consider the Ainu to be the last living descendants of the Jomon ...

An invaluable record of Ainu culture is finding an international audience almost 100 years after it was first published. "Ainu Shinyoshu," or "Collection of Ainu Songs of Gods," compiled by author ...

The law is based on a report compiled in 2009 by an expert panel set up under the chief Cabinet secretary, which stated the Ainu are an indigenous people. The report defined indigenous peoples as ...

A new national museum is putting the spotlight on Japan’s Ainu indigenous people. Upopoy, a sprawling complex also known as the Symbolic Space for Ethnic Harmony, opened in the northernmost ...

After centuries of forced assimilation, Japan’s indigenous Ainu population, language and culture are emerging once more thanks to anime, the country’s thriving sub-cultures and YouTube.