HISTORY
Becoming Japanese: The Story of the Indigenous Uilta of Sakhalin
How the Japanese government attempted to erase and assimilate a small indigenous people - in one case, even using them as spies.
colonization
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HISTORY
SOCIAL MEDIA
Tiny, Complicated Nauru Becomes the Most-Followed Country on Japanese Twitter
Nauru has more Japanese Twitter followers than it does citizens. It also has a dark and complicated history with Japan.
ENTERTAINMENT
Review: “Ainu Mosir” Paints Reality of Japan’s Northern Indigenous People
A film currently streaming on Netflix provides a sensitive and nuanced introduction to the modern lives of the Ainu people.
CULTURE
Ancestral Ainu Remains Returned by Tokyo University
A long fight by Japan's indigenous Ainu results in a hard-won victory - but much more remains to be done.
JAPANESE LANGUAGE
What’s Up With Okinawan Names? A Language History
Why are Okinawan names difficult for even mainland Japanese speakers? How the languages of the Ryukyu kingdom survived - despite attempts to…
HISTORY
When Japan Ruled the Waves: The Forgotten Colonies of Micronesia
How Japan defeated the German Empire in World War I and ruled over Micronesia for three decades - before it all came…
HISTORY
Video: The Colonization of Hokkaido
Watch our latest video - a reading by author Noah Oskow of his original essay on the history of Hokkaido and how…
HISTORY
Karafuto: How Japan Gained – and Lost – a Prefecture
The story of how, for a brief period of time, the island of Karafuto controlled by Russia became an official part of…