ABSTRACT

This chapter examines whether higher education reforms in Japan align with the rights provided within the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the Draft Law Concerning the Ainu People adopted by the Ainu. The chapter concludes that the 1997 Act on the Promotion of Ainu Culture and Dissemination and Enlightenment of Knowledge About Ainu Tradition, etc. falls far short of the requirements of UNDRIP and ignores the provisions recommended by the Ainu, which would have gone a long way to providing for their rights to self-determination.