Ainu People Challenge Japan Domination

Ainu opposition to a proposed nuclear waste dump and demand for fishing rights expose Japan's domination of the Original Peoples of Hokkaido.

On July 6, 2025, The Japan Times reported, “Ainu land rights in crosshairs as Hokkaido communities debate nuclear waste.”

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan is proposing an underground nuclear waste repository on the island of Hokkaido, where the Ainu People were nearly the sole inhabitants prior to Japan’s imperial annexation in 1869. Echoing the West’s “Christian Discovery” domination practices, the land annexation included a ban on Ainu "barbarian" practices and traditional hunting and fishing and required the Ainu to speak Japanese and take Japanese names.

Today the Ainu number fewer than 20,000. But they remember who they are… or at least some of them do.

Ainu activist Fumio Kimura stands in front of photos of his ancestors at his home in Biratori, Hokkaido, in April. | Chermaine Lee

Fumio Kimura, an Ainu activist in Hokkaido, said that “any nuclear waste on our land is horrible and our right to the land shouldn’t be neglected. Japanese people robbed our land, so why can’t we make our voice heard?”

Not surprisingly — and echoing the system of US-sponsored “tribal councils” — the head of the government-funded Ainu Association of Hokkaido has a different view. He said Hokkaido has been part of Japan for over a hundred years and land rights are no longer feasible.

The Waste Organization said it would be open to address Ainu people’s concerns, but did not promise to obtain consent. The Hokkaido government’s Ainu Policy Division said it stands with the prefecture’s opposition to dumping nuclear waste on the island.

The Japan Times says Ainu people have so far not raised the issue of nuclear waste en masse, and are focused on a high-profile salmon fishing rights case where land rights are also a focal point of argument.

Ainu Fishing Rights

In April 2024, Japan Wire reported the Sapporo District Court decision against the Ainu: The Presiding Judge acknowledged that the Ainu have been continuously fishing salmon in the area since the 17th century at the latest and are entitled to continue their own culture. But, in yet another echo of the West’s legal entrapment of Indigenous Peoples, the judge said the Ainu argument involves "a strong aspect of property rights" and goes beyond the scope of preserving and passing on their tradition. In other words, Indigenous Peoples have the right to remain forever in their pasts… except for their past ownership of lands.

Ainu people holding a ritual to celebrate the arrival of the year's salmon season. (Kyodo, September 2022)

Japanese law does not recognize Ainu rights to Hokkaido's land, despite the fact that Japan voted in favor of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The UN Declaration states that governments shall “take effective measures” to “ensure that no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of Indigenous people without their free, prior and informed consent.”

But Japan, like the US, accompanied its vote with a disclaimer that gutted the “consent” requirement protecting Indigenous lands.

Japan said: “With respect to property rights, the contents of these rights are defined by the established civil laws and regulations of each member state.”

The US, under President Obama said: “The Declaration’s affirmation of ‘free and informed consent’ is a ‘call for a process of meaningful consultation with tribal leaders, but not necessarily the agreement of those leaders, before the actions addressed in those consultations are taken.’”

“Deliberative Dialogue” Under A Claim of a Right of Domination

After the 2011 meltdowns at Fukushima all of Japan’s nuclear power stations were shut down while new safety standards were drawn up. So far, only 14 of the previous 54 reactors have been restarted. Nevertheless, earlier this year, Japan announced a plan to boost nuclear energy back to pre-Fukushima levels. The stated reason was to “realize its net-zero goal by 2050”.

Somehow, the perverse illogic of “net-zero” ignores the fact that uranium and other materials needed for nuclear energy have to mined and processed — and not levitated from the earth — and that these materials need to be disposed of after use. The materials are highly radioactive and are usually buried deep underground with lots of finger-crossing because tens of thousands of years must pass before high-level waste becomes neutralized. The current “interim” facility in Aomori Prefecture can only house waste for 50 years and 80% of the storage space was filled as of 2023.

Fear not, the “experts” assure us that storing waste is “actually pretty straightforward”: Japan Times quoted a professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who said that current technology can prevent leakages of high-level waste underground, “as long as the assessment for a site is done right”. One wonders whether the proposed burial site will be as thoroughly “assessed” as was the Fukushima site.

The Waste Organization said the biggest challenge is to gain the understanding of the public. A professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology suggested the government should select around 20 sites and engage their communities in “deliberative dialogue” to win their support for waste storage.

The prospect that “deliberative dialogue” might lead to continued skepticism and rejection of the waste dumps seems to be off their map. That’s probably because they can rely on their domination structures to ignore lack of consent— not only for the Ainu, but for Japanese citizens.