Ainu lose legal battle over right to catch salmon in northern Japan

A Japanese court on Thursday rejected a demand by a group of Ainu indigenous people in northern Japan to be recognized as exempt from a ban on commercial salmon fishing in a river, arguing they had inherited this right from their ancestors.The Sapporo District Court handed down the ruling that the river is public property, and that the court does not admit the rights for any particular group of people to fish there exclusively.The Raporo Ainu Nation, which includes descendants of Ainu communities who began residing around the river in Urahoro, Hokkaido, centuries ago, is likely to appeal th…READ FULL ARTICLE