ABSTRACT
For many Ainu prejudice and discrimination are facts of life, and the extent of both are well documented in a series of socioeconomic surveys in Hokkaido (both at the prefectural and local level) and in the Kanto area. One of the first investigations, in the Hidaka district in 1965, found that 52.4 percent of Ainu residents had suffered discrimination for being Ainu (Hokkaido Hidaka Shicho 1965:52). An early survey of Asahikawa schoolchildren also unearthed strong negative Ainu stereotypes (Nishi 1971). In a 1986 survey of Hokkaido Ainu, 71.6 percent of respondents had experienced discrimination, and 85.5 percent of those believed it still existed (Hokkaido Minsei-bu 1986:44-45). In surveys carried out on Ainu residents of three towns, Urakawa, Biratori and Hobetsu, 92.7 percent, 68.5 percent and 52.8 percent respectively answered that prejudice and discrimination were still a reality (Matsumoto et all 1986:27). In Urakawa, 49.7 percent of non-Ainu (Wajin) residents also gave the same answer (Ota and Utagawa 1988:80). When asked to describe discriminatory acts they had suffered, a quarter (24.6 percent) of Urakawa Ainu respondents to this question mentioned overtly racial slurs, to do with hairiness, smell or bestiality (Matsumoto et a1. 1986:32-33). In Tokyo, 83.0 percent of Ainu residents surveyed had experienced discrimination in 1975; in the late 1980s this figure was 72.4 percent (Tokyo-to Kikaku Shingi-shitsu 1989:175).
