Remains of Ainu people in Britain to be returned to Japan
The Japanese government said Friday that the remains of three Ainu Indigenous people that were kept at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland will be returned to Japan.
The three skulls are set to arrive at Hokkaido on May 3, after a handover ceremony at the university Wednesday.
They will be placed at a memorial facility at the National Ainu Museum and Park, or Upopoy, in the Hokkaido town of Shiraoi.
It is the third time that the remains of Ainu people that were taken abroad for research purposes have been returned to Japan, following the 2017 return from Germany and the 2023 return from Australia.
The remains of the three Ainu people were given to the university in 1913 from a British doctor living in Japan. The university's possession of the remains came to light in 2023, prompting Tokyo to ask for their return.
Records say that the remains were unearthed in "Okoshi," "Urakawa" and "Kushiro," which the government believes are the locations with the same geographical names in present-day Hokkaido.
In Britain, three more sets of Ainu remains and an additional 10 sets that may be Ainu have been confirmed at the Natural History Museum in London. The government will continue to call on the museum to accept research on the remains and return them.
Also on Friday, the government released the results of an awareness survey regarding the Ainu that covered 3,000 people in Japan aged 18 or older. Only 28.4% of the respondents replied that they have any experience or contact with Ainu people or culture.
"Keeping Ainu people's sentiment in mind, we'll strive to promote related measures steadily," Yoshitaka Ito, minister in charge of Ainu-related policies, told a press conference.
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