MORE than most countries, Japan thinks of itself as uniquely homogenous and, in terms of language, culture and origin, ethnographers broadly agree. But the fair-skinned Ainu—supremely hairy of body, with luxuriant beards on the men and tattooed lips on the women—are the notable exception.

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Belatedly recognised

Or were. The Ainu's traditional heartland is Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main islands, on which the G8 summit has just been held. Not long ago, they were also found in Sakhalin and the Kurile islands. Although there had been a Japanese presence in south-west Hokkaido since the Middle Ages, it was only in the 19th century that it was annexed to become what the West was for America: a new frontier to be opened by persecuting the hunter-gatherers already there. While the Ainu called their place Ainu Mosir, “the land of human beings”, Hokkaido means “the road to the northern sea”, and the Japanese settling of their new frontier was every bit as brutal as America's.

Today only 24,000 call themselves Ainu, most of them of mixed blood. Only ten native Ainu speakers remain, while a solitary century-old woman is thought to have a tattooed lip. The Ainu's origins are vague. Certainly, they are related to ethnic groups in Russia's far east. But one genetic marker is shared only by people in Tibet and the Andaman Islands. Jared Diamond, a biogeographer, says their mystery makes the Ainu the world's most studied indigenous group. One thing is increasingly clear: they are more obviously the descendants of Japan's original inhabitants, the Jomon, inventors of the world's earliest pottery, than are modern Japanese, who are descended from later settlers from Korea. This infuriates Japan's racial chauvinists.

So only now—and partly because of the spotlight from hosting the G8—has Japan's parliament passed a resolution recognising the Ainu as a people in their own right. The first law about the Ainu that was passed, in 1899, defined them as aborigines in need of assimilation. But until the law's repeal in 1997, Japan officially denied having any indigenous minorities.

The recognition, says Tadashi Kato, head of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, comes dangerously late. But it may encourage more Ainu to admit to their identity, having concealed it because of discrimination at school and work, and in the marriage market. Mr Kato thinks that maybe ten times more than the official number think of themselves as Ainu, even if many are of mixed blood. He argues that the parliamentary resolution is just a first step. It offers no legal protection, and carries no obligations for the state. There is little talk yet of an apology for Japan's past treatment of the Ainu, let alone a restitution of lands or hunting rights.

Today, the Ainu's dances, handicrafts and animist beliefs are on display mainly for touristic consumption. Their traditional respect for nature is much in vogue with urban Japanese in search of a more innocent Japan. But it is unclear how these purists would take to a revival of what once was the Ainu's central ritual, called iyomante. This involved the public sticking of a giant bear, considered a god whose spirit could return to heaven only through prolonged taunting and death.