Photo/Illutration Mamoru Tazawa, chair of the Enciw Bereaved Association, speaks to reporters in Chitose, Hokkaido, on May 8 after returning from Australia. (Takayuki Kakuno)

SAPPORO--The remains of four Ainu indigenous people were returned to Japan on May 8 from Australia where they had been taken for research purposes prior to 1940.

Records show the remains of one of the people were excavated in the southern part of Sakhalin island, north of Hokkaido, during the first half of the 20th century when Japan controlled the area.

It’s the first case where the remains of an Ainu person who lived on Sakhalin were returned to Japan from overseas.

Ainu were indigenous people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin and the Kuril islands who had their own language and distinctive culture before they were forced to assimilate.

It is believed that the remains of Ainu people are being kept in multiple countries.

The government has been working to have the remains returned as the descendants of the deceased Ainu people strongly want them back.

Members of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido and the Enciw Bereaved Association, a group of descendants of Ainu people who lived on Sakhalin, visited Australia.

They received the four remains from the National Museum of Australia in Canberra and the Museums Victoria in Melbourne, which had kept them.

After the Australian side offered to return the remains to Japan, the government had been doing the necessary procedures.

There are records suggesting Yoshikiyo Koganei (1859–1944), a professor of anatomy at Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo), and another professor had donated the remains to Australian researchers prior to 1940, according to the Comprehensive Ainu Policy Office at the Cabinet Secretariat.

It is believed that the remains of one person that Museums Victoria had kept were excavated near the mouth of the Poronay river in the southern part of Sakhalin in 1936.

Hokkaido University will temporarily keep the remains found in the southern part of Sakhalin. The Enciw Bereaved Association has expressed its desire to receive the remains.

A third-party committee set up within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology will assess if it is appropriate to hand over the remains to the group.

The remains of the other three people have been moved to and are being kept at the Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park in Shiraoi, Hokkaido.

The remains of many Ainu people were collected for research purposes in the past.

It is believed that some were taken from their graves without permission.

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