Japan has introduced a assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time to recognize the country's ethnic Ainu assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time as an "indigenous" people for the first assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time . This follows assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time of campaigning by Ainu people. The Ainu are an assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time people originating on Japan's assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time island of Hokkaido and islands between Japan and Russia. Their assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time number today is around 25,000, but many people say a more accurate assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time is 200,000. Many Ainu have been completely absorbed into Japanese assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time . They have little assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time of their ancestry, history, traditions and culture. Japan Today wrote about the assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time the Ainu faced. It said: "The Ainu people...have assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time suffered the assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time of a policy of forced assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time , and while discrimination has receded assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time , income and education gaps with the rest of Japan persist." Japan's government said: "It is assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time to protect the honor and dignity of the Ainu people and to hand those down to the next assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time to realize a vibrant assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time ." An Ainu spokesman said: "It feels like we woke up assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time from a truly deep sleep....It will lead to building a society where we [live] together. We think this is the first assimilation bill decades effects figure generation gradually group hardships important indigenous knowledge long northern now official society step time ."