A legal opinion on Ainu fishing rights in Japan in response to a conflict between an Ainu leader and Hokkaido authority!

The Centre for Environment and Minority Policy Studies (CEMiPoS) is a Sapporo-based think tank and research institute dedicated to defending the rights of indigenous peoples. The CEMiPoS presented a legal opinion on the traditional fishing rights of indigenous Ainu people in Japan. The Japanese government is under a legal obligation to uphold the framework of international human rights laws. Professor Kamrul Hossain, the Director of Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland, authored the legal opinion. Professor Hossain, a legal expert on indigenous peoples' rights, analysed the recent conflict between Mr Satoshi Hatakeyama, an Ainu leader of the Monbetsu Ainu community, and the official authority in Hokkaido for natural resource management and local autonomy within Japanese legal system. The conflict concerned Mr Hatakeyama's fishing rights as an Ainu, as well as that of his community as an indigenous people. The legal opinion underlined Japan's legal obligation under human rights laws and the conflict between internal laws within the domestic legal system of Japan as it applies to fishing regulation, in particular in Hokkaido prefecture. The legal opinion can be accessed through the following link: https://cemipos.org/2020/06/01/legal-opinion-indigenous-peoples/