Hokkaidō 150 UBC Centre for Japanese Research

In this episode, Dr. Scott Harrison (APF) reviews international relations between Canada, Japan, and Northeast Asia from the perspective of Indigenous issues. We discuss Ainu-related ties between Canada and Japan, the Ainu perspective of diplomatic disputes between Japan and Russia, Ainu relations with minority groups in China, and issues arising from the recent bill recognizing Ainu as Indigenous.

In this episode, Dr. Godefroy (INALCO Paris) retraces early ties and interactions between Ainu and mainland Japanese dating to prehistorical times. We discuss protohistorical linguistic ties, trade relations in the early modern period, and Ainu relations with other Indigenous populations in northeast Asia.

In this episode, Dr. Mark Watson profiles the Ainu minority living in Tokyo, noting the discrimination and ostracism they face. We discuss the history of Ainu migration out of Hokkaidō along with social issues confronting the Ainu in Tokyo, before talking about Dr. Watson's recent work with Inuit living in Montreal.

In this episode, Michael Roellinghoff (Toronto) highlights the American influences in the Japanese settler colonization of Hokkaidō. We discuss the roles of American advisors, such as Horace Capron and William Smith Clark, along with similarities between the colonization of the US West and Hokkaidō, before putting Japanese settler colonialism into a more global context.

In this episode, republished from the Meiji at 150 Podcast, Dr. Katsuya Hirano (UCLA) underlines the racialization and dispossession of the Indigenous Ainu inhabitants of Hokkaidō during Japanese settler colonization of the island during the Meiji Period. We discuss the role of capitalism and infrastructural development in Japanese imperial expansion, the impacts of the Meiji Restoration on the Ainu population, conditions for Ainu today, and the ongoing challenges of cultural commodification.

In this episode, Dr. Strong recounts the cultural significance of Kamuy Yukar, Ainu epic tales of spiritual beings. We discuss Ainu oral history traditions, the cultural role of Kamuy Yukar, and the life of Chiri Yukie, a young Ainu woman who transcribed and preserved many Kamuy Yukar before her untimely death in 1922.