#ainu

Ethnonyms: Ainu, Айны [Ainy], Kurile, Kuriles, Курилы [Kurily], Kamchatka Kurile, Kamchatka Ainu, Камчатские курилы [​Kamchatskie kurily]; Eine, Эйны [Einy], Enchiw.

Total population: 109

Ethnolinguistic classification: Ainu

Homeland: the Russian Far East

Regions with significant populations: Cape Lopatka, Shumshu and Paramushir, Urup, Kunashir, and Iturup, Sakhalin

Languages and dialects: Russian, Kamchatka Ainu, Northern Kuril Ainu, Southern Kuril Ainu, Sakhalin Ainu, Itelmen, Nivkh

Religion: Ainu religion, the Russian Orthodox Church

Related ethnic groups: Kamchadals, Nivkhs, Itelmens

Ainu in Russia refers to the small, historically deep-rooted Ainu-descended population of the Russian Far East, especially in Kamchatka, the Kurils, and Sakhalin, where Ainu lands were gradually absorbed into Russian imperial expansion at different moments: Kamchatka became a Russian possession in 1607, the Kurils were added in 1721, Sakhalin was jointly held from 1854, and the southern Sakhalin/Kurils changed hands repeatedly between Russia and Japan before ending up under Soviet, then Russian, control after 1945. Historically, the Ainu of Kamchatka and the northern Kurils were not isolated inland peoples but a coastal and maritime society tied to fishing, hunting, boat use, and interethnic exchange; Russian accounts describe the Kamchatka Ainu—often called “Kuriles” by colonists—as living in several settlements around Cape Lopatka, numbering nearly 500 in 1738, then being weakened by epidemics and famine, and gradually being absorbed into Kamchadal communities, with the old ethnonym fading from documents during the 19th century. On Sakhalin, census-style records also show a substantial 19th-century presence, with the 1897 count listing hundreds of Ainu men and women in the Korsakovsk District and along the Tatar Strait coast, yet by the modern era the community had become tiny and difficult to enumerate; a 2026 scholarly synthesis reports that 109 people identified as Ainu in the 2010 Russian census, predominantly in Sakhalin, while many descendants in Russia have historically identified instead as Kamchadal, Russian, or another local group. Culturally, Russian ethnographers noted that Kamchatka Ainu dwellings and customs were strikingly close to those of the Kamchadals, and they recorded details such as body tattooing, bark- or skin-based clothing, and local knowledge shared with neighboring northern peoples; today, however, the Ainu language is extinct as a spoken language in Russia, so the community survives more through ancestry, historical memory, and occasional cultural reassertion than through an everyday vernacular speech community.

Ethnonyms: Ainu, Utari, aynu/aynu itak

Total population: 11,450

Ethnolinguistic classification: Ainu

Homeland: Ainu Mosir

Regions with significant populations: Hokkaido Prefecture, Tōhoku region, Sakhalin Island, Kuril Islands

Languages and dialects: Ainu, Hokkaido Ainu, Sakhalin Ainu, Kuril Ainu

Religion: Ainu religion

Related ethnic groups: Jōmon, Ryukyuans

The Ainu are an Indigenous people of northern Japan whose historical homeland includes Hokkaido and also extends, in museum and heritage sources, to Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and parts of Tōhoku in northern Honshu; today, most Ainu live in Hokkaido, although Ainu communities also exist elsewhere in Japan and beyond. Their language, Ainu, is especially distinctive: UNESCO describes it as not being proven related to any other known language, and Ainu-language revitalization is now a visible part of cultural preservation work, including museum exhibits, audio guides, and place-name learning. Culturally, the Ainu are strongly associated with hunting, fishing, farming, and gathering, along with finely developed crafts, oral traditions such as yukar, and ritual life centered on the idea that spiritual beings or forces permeate the natural world; the National Ainu Museum explicitly presents spirituality, ramat, and ceremonies such as iyomante as central to Ainu worldview. Ainu dance is also recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage practice, performed in ceremonies, banquets, festivals, and daily life, showing how music and movement are woven into social and religious expression rather than functioning as mere entertainment. Historically, Ainu communities experienced intense assimilation pressure, including restrictions on language and customs, and Japanese government materials still acknowledge the persistence of prejudice and discrimination; at the same time, these same sources emphasize ongoing cultural revival and public education efforts. A recent Hokkaido government survey counted 11,450 people in 5,322 households identified as Ainu in the prefecture, but the survey itself notes that this was not a full count of everyone of Ainu descent, which is important because assimilation and self-identification have long made the community difficult to measure precisely.