The Ainu are a people with a cultural and racial background which is different from that of the ethnic Japanese. They have been populating Hokkaido, northern Tohoku, the Kurile Islands and Sakhalin, but today only a small population remains mainly in Hokkaido.

According to one of several theories, the Ainu are descendants of Mongoloid migrants who entered the Japanese islands before the Jomon period. They were later displaced and assimilated, when the ethnic Japanese expanded their territory northernwards.

In the Meiji Period (1868-1912), the Ainu received the status of "former aboriginals", but suffered under official discrimination for some years. In 1997, a new law was passed which provides funds for the research and promotion of Ainu culture.