People
The Japanese people are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries are referred to as nikkeijin.
There are various ethnic groups in Japan:
1. Ainu People
The Ainu are the last remaining indigenous people of Japan whose cultural foundation is based primarily on the northernmost island of Hokkaido. Ainu however are known to have existed in the northern reaches of Honshu, the Sakhalin islands north of Japan, the Kamchatka Peninsula and on the Kurile Islands of Russia. There are many theories surrounding the origins of the Ainu, but the most popular is that the Ainu were descended from the Jomon people, a hunter-gatherer society who lived throughout Japan as early as 13000 years ago (Crawford, 2000).
Ainu features are quit different from Japanese—Ainu are of larger stock, lighter complexion, most always have curly hair, and men are able to grow beards of great length. Their culture relies heavily on a deep oral history and tradition that they have kept alive through word of mouth, and only recently in written form. Ainu are animists and believe that there is a spirit or kamui within everything.
Official estimates of the population are of around 25,000, while the unofficial number is upwards of 200,000 people.
2. Aizumi People
The Azumi were a people of ancient Japan, believed to have lived in the north of Kyūshū. It is believed that the Azumi language was an Austronesian language of the Malayan branch.
3. Burakumin People
Burakumin (literal translation: "small settlement people'') are a Japanese social minority group. The burakumin are one of the main minority groups in Japan, along with the Ainu of Hokkaidō, the Ryukyuans of Okinawa and Japanese residents of Korean and Chinese descent.
The burakumin are descendants of outcast communities of the feudal era, which mainly comprised those with occupations considered "tainted" with death or ritual impurity (such as executioners, undertakers, workers in slaughterhouses, butchers or tanners), and traditionally lived in their own secluded hamlets and ghettos.
They were legally liberated in 1871 with the abolition of the feudal caste system. However, this did not put a stop to social discrimination and their lower living standards, because Japanese family registration (Koseki) was fixed to ancestral home address until recently, which allowed people to deduce their Burakumin membership. The Burakumin were one of the several groups discriminated against within Japanese society.
4. Dekasegi
Dekasegi is a term used in the Japanese language to refer to ethnic Japanese people who have migrated to Japan from South America, having taken advantage of Japanese citizenship or nisei visa and immigration laws to escape from economic instability in South America. The vast majority were from Brazil, but there is also a large population from Peru, as well as far smaller populations from other Latin American countries.
There are approximately 275,000 such people in Japan from Brazil alone. Some are bilingual in Japanese and Portuguese, but many are monolingual in Portuguese alone when they first come to Japan and face additional challenges due to this language barrier.
5. Ryukyuan People
The Ryukyuan or Lewchewan people are the indigenous peoples of the Ryukyu Islands between the islands of Kyūshū and Taiwan. The generally recognized subgroups of Ryukyuans are Amamians, Okinawans, Miyakoans, Yaeyamans, and Yonagunians. Geographically, they live in either Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture. Their languages, such as Uchinaaguchi, make up the Ryukyuan language family, one of the two branches of the Japonic language family, the other one being Japanese and its dialects.
6. Yamato People
Yamato people ( Yamato-minzoku?) is a name for the dominant native ethnic group of Japan. It is a term that came to be used around the late 19th century to distinguish the residents of the mainland Japan from other minority ethnic groups who have resided in the peripheral areas of Japan such as Ainu, Ryukyuans, Nivkhs, Ulta, as well as Koreans, Taiwanese, and Taiwanese aborigines who were incorporated into the Empire of Japan in the early 20th century.
7. Emishi
The Emishi were a group of people who lived in northeastern Honshū in what is today known as the Tōhoku region. Some Emishi tribes opposed and resisted the rule of the Japanese Emperors during the late Nara and early Heian periods (7th–10th centuries AD). More recently, scholars believe that they were natives of northern Honshū who were descendants of those who produced the Jōmon culture. They are thought to have been related to the Ainu.
The Japanese are known for their ability to absorb western culture and capitalism while ultimately maintaining their cultural identity. Religion is another thing that is interesting about Japan. Japan is 80-95% Buddhist or Shinto (the indigenous religion). Only about 2% of the population is Christian even though many other western ideas have transferred over. The Japanese celebrate Xmas on December 25th as a strictly secular celebration. It's about gift giving and being with your loved ones and not about the birth of Christ for example. Explicitly westernized, but implicitly, they are very strong willed and proud about their cultural and religious heritage. Also it’s interesting to note that even though the feudal system of the Samurai is a thing of the past, vestiges of it exist in corporate Japan.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_people
http://www.csun.edu/japanese/papers/02_ainu.html
http://peggyhaines.com/ainu.jpg
http://media.discovernikkei.org/articles/3201/angel-island.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Five_men_wearing_Ryukyuan_Dress.JPG/250px-Five_men_wearing_Ryukyuan_Dress.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Japanese_People.jpg/304px-Japanese_People.jpg
http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/87990648.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=91F5CCEF208281FD321B67374A308008A19FC8FCF9C76B94D32E4F8AA8BDA9A3
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