Regarding the issue of a panel exhibition containing discriminatory content against the Ainu people being held at the Sapporo Station Front Underground Pedestrian Space (Chikaho), Ainu people and related parties submitted approximately 16,000 signatures to the City of Sapporo, which manages Chikaho, on the 27th, demanding preventive measures. The senior official from the Sapporo City government who responded at the city hall indicated an intention to consider preventive measures.
Sapporo City
Sapporo is the capital of Hokkaido, Japan, founded officially in 1868 during the Meiji period as part of a planned development of Japan’s northern frontier. It is now internationally famous for its annual Sapporo Snow Festival, its beer brewing heritage (Sapporo Beer), and as the host of the 1972 Winter Olympics.
Sapporo Station Front Underground Pedestrian Space (Chikaho)
The Sapporo Station Front Underground Pedestrian Space, commonly known as “Chikaho,” is an extensive network of underground passages and shopping plazas connecting major buildings around Sapporo Station. It was developed primarily in the 1970s and 1980s to provide comfortable, weather-protected access for pedestrians during Hokkaido’s harsh winters. Today, it remains a vital and bustling part of the city’s infrastructure, filled with shops, restaurants, and direct links to department stores and transit.
Ainu people
The Ainu are the indigenous people of northern Japan, particularly Hokkaido, as well as parts of Russia’s Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Historically a hunter-gatherer society with a distinct language and animistic spirituality, they faced centuries of assimilation policies by the Japanese government, which officially recognized them as an indigenous people only in 2019. Today, efforts are focused on cultural revitalization, including the preservation of their language, traditional crafts, and oral traditions.
