Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura indicated that the government would positively respond to the resolution. "The government will strive to work out comprehensive measures [for the Ainu] with the understanding that the Ainu are indigenous people," Machimura said. Machimura's remarks represent a step forward for Ainu people. The government has not clearly previously recognized them as native inhabitants. The government plans to set up a panel of experts tasked with discussing what rights ethnic Ainu people should have. According to the resolution, "Many Ainu were discriminated against and driven into poverty during Japan's modernization process." The resolution urged the government to recognize the Ainu as indigenous people with their own language, religion and culture. In addition, it asks top government officials to compile comprehensive measures after hearing expert opinions.
Part of the reaction of the Diet might reflect frustration. As late as 2000, the "Ainu, Japan's indigenous people, are complaining of growing discrimination despite a landmark law enacted in 1997 that for the first time recognizes their culture as unique and officially promotes their rights." Suvendrini Kakuchi, Ainu Discrimination Defies the Law, Asia Times On Line, May 19, 2000 ("While they are physically similar to the largely homogenous Japanese, their thick beards and hairyness mark them apart and have made them targets for ridicule. Marriage with other Japanese is a problem and access to jobs are often difficult."). Nonetheless, a genuine and perhaps growing sentiment for inclusion, in light of changes in attitude, may account for some of the move in the Diet, in addition to the reaction to the difficulty of changing attitudes further. And that move is to be applauded.
"We will take seriously the historical fact that during our country's modernization process, many Ainu people were discriminated against and were forced to live in poverty," Mr Machimura's statement said. "Today's resolution will turn a new page in Japanese history," Tadashi Kato, director of the Hokkaido Utari Association, told a meeting of a group of politicians. "I sincerely hope you will continue to support the creation of a society with ethnic harmony."
Julian Ryall, Bear Worshiping Ainu to Flourish Again, supra. Still, from the majority's perspective, the emphasis is on redressing the consequences of discrimination--poverty. From the perspective of the Ainu it will be on the creation of a society of several parts with "ethnic harmony." The two sides are still using similar words to say very different things,and the emphasis of the two groups are far apart. One side sees discrimination in terms of poverty; the other in terms of an opening of social acceptance within an otherwise strongly homogeneous society that tends to view difference sceptically. Both groups speak of harmony to different effect. It will be interesting to see how these two views harmonize as the consequences of the recent action of the Diet plays out.