In Japan, the Ainu people are disappearing.

Dr. Kinko Ito, sociology professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, set out to record their stories before their culture is lost.

Ito produced a documentary, “Have You Heard about the Ainu? Elders of Japan’s Indigenous People Speak,” based on her ethnographic research in Hokkaido, Japan, from 2011 to 2014.

The Ainu are an indigenous ethnic minority group with a unique language and culture.  They still experience prejudice and discrimination at school, at work, and in marriage, Ito said.

The documentary, which recently made its public debut, features several Ainu elders who share their life stories. Ito observed their daily routines and conducted some 30 unstructured interviews with Ainu and non-Ainu Japanese individuals in Hokkaido. The interview topics included identity, marriage, family, relations with non-Ainu Japanese, and school and work experiences.

There are about 24,000 Ainu in Hokkaido. They don’t have a written language, so they have relied on oral tradition. The Endangered Language Project puts the number of native speakers between 10 and 15. All Ainu in Japan speak Japanese.

“I felt very sad about these people and their unique culture sort of disappearing right in front of my eyes,” Ito said. “I also felt very lucky that I could be there to record them before they are completely gone.”
The number of full-blooded Ainu is on the decline because of intermarriages, and the young generation may or may not take up the Ainu traditions, Ito said. There are also non-Ainu Japanese, both young and old, who are interested in preserving Ainu crafts, language, and dance.

“Intermarriages are very common, and I assume that this is definitely the reason why there are few, if any, full-blooded Ainu today,” Ito said. “The situation is very similar here in the U.S. in regards to full-blooded Native Americans.”

Ito applied for a summer scholarship from the former UALR College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences in 2014 and received $4,000 to support her efforts to make the documentary film.

Ito videotaped all her interviews with the Ainu.

“The camera, even though it was cheap, did wonders,” she said.

A friend helped her edit the shots, and Dr. Robert Boury, of the UALR Music Department, composed and performed the original soundtrack for the film.

Ito was awarded a Research and Creative Activity Grant by the UALR College of Social Sciences and Communication in May 2015 for her film.

She has been entering her documentary in various film festivals in the U.S. and abroad to spread the word about the Ainu and UALR.

In the fall of 2016, Ito plans to upload her documentary to Youtube so that anyone with an Internet connection can watch and know about the Ainu minority in Japan.

Ito earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Ohio State University. She is nationally and internationally known for her research on Japanese popular culture and the Ainu.

Ito is offering a Japanese culture and society class in the spring semester of 2016. It will include numerous cultural experiences.