Who are the’‘hairy’' people ?

Are they somehow related to the pearl divers? Where in Japan are they?

Where do they live? Well, this one lives in Saitama...

But seriously, and before I get accused of being sarcastic again, could you be referring to the Ainu in Hokkaido, who are supposed to be hairier than other Japanese people?

Supposedly Okinawans are also more "kebukai" than other Japanese. Even watched a tv special on it with the title something like "Hairy People in Japan"...

I doubt that hairy people are especially related to pearls. Also I am very curious about how this "hairy people in Japan" question comes with "pearls" :)

I'm half Japanse and hairy. (Boo hoo). I think it depends on the person. Not very many Japanse people are hairy, but you get the odd one...like my dad is.

Thanks, I was looking for the name Ainu. Just a silly topic that came up among my Judo friends over drinks.

Original Japanese people came from the south east asia during the ice age which are now referred to as Ainu. They were short, stocky, and hairy. Approximately starting 300BC, there were large population of Koreans migrating to Japan. Since the Koreans were farmers unlike the Ainu who were hunters, Korean population grew very fast and eventually mixed with local Ainu population. Modern Japanese today are basically Koreans with some mixture of original islanders from the south east asia. The hairy genes comes from the original islanders (Ainu).

Nowadays, some of them prefer the word Utari ウタリ(meaning "comrade" in Ainu) instead of Ainu.

I roughly agree with Kevin’s opinion. Generally we Japanese have more hairy body than Korean people. But I would like to add some comments.
People of Okinawa and Amami-islands are more hairy than me (mainland Japanese). All of my friends who are hairy came from Okinawa (or descent of Okinawan). Some anthropologist said Okinawan and Ainu have similar genes.

(I would apologize if my comments have something like racism. I never have intention of racism)

thanks everyone!