Tackling taboos: Japanese university club teaches Ainu traditions

Ainu Indigenous student Orita (second from left) practising ethnic dancing with members of the Ainu culture club 'Urespa' at Sapporo University in Sapporo. Photos: Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP

When Yuko Honda, a professor at Japan's Sapporo University, tried to start a scholarship for Ainu Indigenous students and a club to celebrate their culture, she ran into fierce resistance.

"We faced a terrible backlash," Honda, a professor of cultural studies at the university in the northern Hokkaido region, said.