Ainu remains return to Japan from London's Museum after over 100 years

SAPPORO — The remains of seven Ainu people were returned Friday to Japan from London's Natural History Museum after more than 100 years, in an attempt by the Japanese government to secure the return of many remains of the indigenous people held by institutions abroad.

The return marked the fourth such repatriation of the remains of Ainu, an ethnic group mainly from the northern main island of Hokkaido, which had been moved abroad for anthropological studies.

Four of the seven sets of remains, which were excavated in Yakumo and Mori in Hokkaido and donated to the museum, were returned after 160 years.

Two sets of remains were found in Kuril Islands while the origin of the seventh individual's remains is unknown, according to the Japan's Cabinet Office. These remains were donated to the museum between 1866 and 1911.

Before the remains arrived in Hokkaido, Japan's minister of Ainu-related policies, Hitoshi Kikawada, and Masaru Okawa, the executive director of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, traveled to the London museum to attend a ceremony on Tuesday for the handover of the remains.

The returned remains will be kept at the Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park in Shiraoi, Hokkaido.

Before these remains, those of eight Ainu people -- one in Germany, four in Australia and three in Scotland -- were returned to Japan.

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