Japan Border Review, No. Summary
14 (2024)

SummaryKyūdojin (“Former Natives”) as Defined by Japanese Government
Agencies, and its Impact on the Ainu: A Case Study of Samote, a
Man Born in the Southern Hokkaido Village of Ainumanai
Osaka Taku
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Hokkaido, Japanese government agencies
labeled some Ainu as kyūdojin (“former natives”), making them subject to various special policies.
However, there was variance in which Ainu were included as “former natives” depending on the
period and region, and the actual effects remain largely unclear. This study focuses on the case of
Samote, a man born in the southern Hokkaido village of Ainumanai, and his family, to examine how
government agencies included certain individuals as “former natives” while excluding others, andseeks to ascertain the impact on people subject to this classification.
Although Samote achieved economic success through fishing, a rare achievement for an Ainu atthat time, government agency categorization considered him a “former native person not requiring
special assistance.” This clearly indicates that racial as well as cultural and economic factors were
included in the criteria used by the government agencies for “former natives.”
Hakodate Prefecture, which governed the Oshima Peninsula in southern Hokkaido from 1882 to1886, established its own standards regarding the demographic treatment of mixed-race children,as there were many cases of “former natives” in its jurisdiction who had married wajin (ethnic
Japanese). Hakodate Prefecture tried to standardize its treatment of mixed-race children with
Sapporo and Nemuro Prefectures, but failed. Therefore, each prefecture continued to use its own
standards in investigating the “former native” population.
The children of Samote’s son were included as “former natives,” but, when a daughter married awajin, the children of that couple were excluded. This classification was used to calculate the “former
natives” population, which became the basis for government policies such as allocation of education
support funding for the “former natives.” Such classifications were administrative designations, anddid not mean that individuals so classified were no longer treated as Ainu by their local communities.
Children born to a wajin father and Ainu mother, not included as “former natives” in government111

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agency population statistics, were still considered children of “former natives” during inspections bygovernment officials. These cases illustrate that such individuals continued to be regarded as Ainu.
After the abolition of Hakodate Prefecture, the newly established Hokkaido government
office initially did not set strict standards regarding the “former natives” population. As a result,statistical standards for the “former native” population varied from municipality to municipality,
so demographics sometimes suggested unnatural increases and decreases. In 1919, the Hokkaido
government office set new standards for the demography of the “former native” population. It
included the provision that a child would be treated as a “former native” if one of his or her parents
was a “former native.” Under the new standard, Children born to a wajin father and “former native”
mother, who had previously been excluded from the “former native” population, were now included.
At this time, many of Samote’s grandchildren were added to the “former native” population for the
first time.

Tourism in Karafuto under Japanese Rule as Reflected in the Media:
Focusing on the Discourse Surrounding Indigenous Tourism at“Otasu no Mori”
Ide Akinori

This article sheds light on indigenous minority tourism in colonial Sakhalin, the northern borderregion of Japan. In particular, we will focus on an indigenous minority settlement called “Otasu noMori” which was established near Shikuka, near the 50th parallel of north latitude. The reason for
examining indigenous tourism is based on the hypothesis that it served as an opportunity for thegeneral public to recognize the contours of imperial Japan. Specifically, it refers to the disseminationof media discourses about indigenous peoples, such as ethnographies by anthropologists andtravelogues by literary figures, as well as actual encounters with indigenous peoples through travel.
As a national community is imagined through the “movement” of people, “comparing” differences
becomes important. This article demonstrates such a premise.
First, I will provide an overview of the media of the time on tourism in Karafuto under Japaneserule, and demonstrate that “Otasu no Mori” stood out as a tourist destination. Next, I use articles
from the magazine “Tabi” and travelogues written by a solo author that dealt with “Otasu no Mori,”111

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analyzing them for “affinity” and “exclusivity.” “Affinity” refers to the author’s attempt to empathizewith the residents of Otas and draw them to “our” side, while “exclusivity” is the author’s attempt
to induce contempt and push them away. I extracted subjective expressions from each work, andjudged each word objectively by comparing it with other examples in a Japanese corpus of about 1.1
billion words, in order to understand the perspective from which are portrayed. Words and phrases
extracted from all articles published in magazine “Tabi” include10 “affinity” words (24%), 32“exclusivity” words (76%). In the 11 other works, “affinity” is found in 5 works (45%), “exclusivity”
in 3 works (27%), while 3 works (27%) are indeterminate, while adding up all instances in theindividual works gave 47 instances of “affinity” (64%), and 27 of “exclusivity” (36%). As a result, it
was found that “affinity” was stronger in magazine articles, and “exclusivity” was stronger in singleauthored travelogues. Possible reasons include that the magazine uses tourism as its theme to depict
the extraordinary, emphasizing otherness and heterogeneity, or that short articles use stereotyped
expressions and reuses existing wording. Another possible reason could be that in a book, authors
could write freely without worrying about space, so the high level of knowledge and education of
the authors was reflected in the content.
In conclusion, indigenous peoples are seen through the gazes of “tourists,” who perceive them asothers, different from themselves, and of “researchers,” who seek to protect and educate them. The“researcher” is a visitor who precedes the “tourist,” and may be an anthropologist. Anthropologicalresearch during the era of imperial Japan’s expansion began with “exploratory” research
immediately after the occupation, backed by military support, and then progressed to “scientific”
research led by government agencies. Residents of “Otas no Mori” turned their attention to everyday
life while faced with a double bind, oscillating between “Japanification” and “uncivilization.” Theintertwined tripartite gazes may have called for “comparison” and served as an opportunity for anational communality to emerge.
Finally, I will show that after moving to Japan indigenous peoples, who were only objects of
tourism and research, emerged as “an interested party,” as narrators of their own history and culture.

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A Study on the Development of Educational Exchange andCooperation in the China-Mongolia Border Area:
Focusing on China’s Attempts
NaNbu Hirotaka and kusuyama Ken

China has long borders, and the roles of its borders vary depending on the era and the relationshipwith countries and regions on the other side. In the southern border region, a wide-area network has
been formed extending from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia, and borders tend to betight and tense. In contrast, the northern border region has long been influenced by the internationalsituation, as exemplified by the presence of the Great Wall of China. In addition, the role of local
governments in foreign policy and regional development policy has increased. Therefore, in order toconsider the nature of exchanges across China’s borders, it is necessary to conduct individual studies
on different regions. This paper looks at the border between China and Mongolia, and focuses on
educational exchange and cooperation in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which is a borderregion, and Erenhot City, a frontier city located on the border with Mongolia. The purpose of thisstudy is to clarify what kind of attempts have been made on the Chinese side regarding this border,
while taking into account the differences between the autonomous region level and the city level.
The border between China and Mongolia has long been managed in a restrictive manner due
to the former’s relationship with either the Soviet Union or Russia, but since the 1990s it has
become more accessible than before, and cross-border traffic has increased. Particularly in the2010s, national level measures to promote exchange and cooperation were launched, such as the
One Belt One Road Initiative and the China-Russia-Mongolia Economic Corridor project. Thus,
various initiatives are being actively promoted in this region. On the other hand, Erenhot City wasrecognized as a national key development and open experimental zone in 2014, and is positioned as
an important frontier city at the national level.
The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has moved from expanding openings to the outside
world to educational exchange and cooperation with a focus on Mongolia and Russia. Efforts arebeing made to accept international students from Mongolia at higher education institutions within
the autonomous region and provide them with scholarships, as well as to send Chinese language
teachers to Mongolia. Furthermore, especially in the latter half of the 2010s, the “geographicaladvantage” of being in a remote area has been emphasized. Furthermore, as an autonomous region,

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the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is strengthening its relationship with Mongolia and actively
accepting international students at the higher education level, and the brand of “Study Abroad Inner
Mongolia” is being promoted. Meanwhile, Erlenhot City, with the support of the Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region’s government, is working to attract higher education institutions and is
promoting the acceptance of international students at the elementary and secondary education stages,
as well as the pre-school education stage, and developing programs to support them. Specifically,
schools that accept international students from Mongolia are designated and measures are taken to help
students adapt to school life, as well as providing free education, encouraging outstanding students,
and providing scholarships and living subsidies. Preferential policies are being implemented.
Policies and initiatives at the autonomous district level are parts of national-level systems,with direction, and support behind them, and initiatives at the city level are being developed aspart of national and autonomous district-level systems and policies. However, it becomes clearthat particular measures and initiatives are selected and implemented at each level, depending on
conditions. In other words, the reality of cross-border exchange and cooperation attempts differ at
the national, autonomous regional, and city levels are complicated, showing that the meaning of
national borders is multidimensional.

India’s Development Cooperation in Pursuit of Becoming a
Major Power
Nakatsu Masaaki

India is widely known as a traditional donor country, having begun providing development
assistance to neighboring and other countries after independence in 1947 under the framework ofSouth-South cooperation. Despite this historical context, today India’s status as an “emerging donor”
is a matter of great interest to scholars and practitioners. Irrespective of whether India is considereda traditional donor or an emerging donor, India has positioned development cooperation as a major
tool for strengthening its external relations and achieving its diplomatic interests.
This paper summarizes the history and current situation of Indian development cooperation anddiscusses its characteristics in comparison with traditional donors. It also examines the determinants
and role of Indian development cooperation in the context of India’s diplomatic efforts at becoming

111Summarya major power in global politics.
In recent years, the scale of India’s development cooperation, both technical cooperation andfinancial cooperation ((1) grants, (2) loans, (3) lines of credit), has been growing rapidly. Coupledwith the rapid economic growth since the 2000s, the countries and regions covered by Indiandevelopment cooperation has expanded geographically. In addition, India has traditionally focusedon technical cooperation, but since the mid-2000s, the country has diversified its cooperation
methods, shifting from technical to financial cooperation.
In India’s development cooperation, notable characteristics include its demand-driven and nonconditional approach. In other words, unlike most DAC member countries, the content of India’s
development cooperation is determined based on the needs of recipient countries, and no conditions(e.g., democratization, financial reconstruction) are imposed on recipient countries to implement
cooperation. Underlying these principles is an attitude of non-interference in the internal affairs ofrecipient countries.
In the absence of basic laws or strategic documents about development cooperation, Indiandevelopment cooperation has been largely defined by political ideology and foreign policy. Since the2000s, Indian development cooperation has emerged through the complex interplay of short term
diplomatic and security interests as well as its pursuit of major power status. Therefore, the rapid
expansion and broadening of the scale of development cooperation seen in recent years, as well as
new developments such as the promotion of triangular cooperation and third-country cooperation,
are not only motivated by the pursuit of short-term national interests, but also by the ambitious longterm goal of becoming a major power.
In the future, India’s development cooperation needs to be considered from three perspectives.
First is the regional perspective. While traditional donors and China are more active in development
cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, it remains to be seen whether India’s development
cooperation will work to meet the needs of recipient countries and to achieve its diplomatic goals.
Second is a sub-regional perspective. Given the current situation in which China is strengthening
its involvement in South Asia, it is also necessary to pay attention to develop India’s development
cooperation to South Asia countries in comparison with Chinese development cooperation. Thirdis the global level. It is worth considering how India, which has been pursuing its own path, canengage and collaborate with the international community and various development actors on global
development issues, and whether it can develop a form of development cooperation that will berecognized by the international community as a “responsible donor.” It is also necessary to consider
whether India can maintain its uniqueness in development cooperation in the future in relation to its
pursuit of becoming a major power at the global level.

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Can The Siberian Curse be applied to Central Asia?
Recalculation and examination of Temperature per Capita (TPC)
ueda Akira

This study recalculates the temperature per capita (TPC) for Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to
examine whether The Siberian Curse, a famous thesis relating to the economic geography of Russia,
can also be applied to Central Asia. In 2003, Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy argued that Siberia’s
population was too large from a market economy perspective and that this uneconomic population
distribution was the result of a series of policies introduced by the Soviet communist planners. Theirargument was based on two sets of statistical data: the rank-size of urban populations and the uniquecoldness of Siberia’s large cities, quantified by TPC. Regarding rank-size analysis, Kazuhiro Kumo
and Elena Shadrina revisited this data in 2021 and revealed fundamental problems with Hill andGaddy’s analysis. This paper, though, focuses on TPC as a useful indicator not only in Russia but inany other region. Although Hill and Gaddy used TPC only to suggest the difference in population
distribution between Russia and Canada, this indicator has potential for area research on otherregions because it can be calculated using only two sets of fundamental statistical data: populationand temperature.
From a methodological point of view, this paper tries to suggest the potential of raster data for
academic area research using TPC as an example. In the late 20th and 21st centuries, remote sensingof the earth’s surface has rapidly advanced and survey results are generally published in raster data
format that divides the ground into a grid of tiles. High resolution raster data can be cut to arbitrary
administrative boundaries by using GIS software, allowing comparison with official statistics forany administrative units.
In recalculating TPC, this paper takes two technical measures. One is that temperatures areaggregated using a global raster dataset, and the other is that there are two levels of administrative
units subject to re-aggregation. In principle, the TPC value changes depending on whichadministrative unit is targeted. Russia has more than 80 “oblast” level administrative divisions,which are effective units of analysis for TPC, but the number of “oblasts” in Kazakhstan andKyrgyzstan is extremely small compared to Russia. This paper recalculates TPC at two levels:“oblast” and district. For both countries, many of the meaningful results came from district-level
analyses but oblast-level analyses were essential for comparison with the Russian case.

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The TPC of Kazakhstan rose from 1970 to 2009 and there was no evidence of The SiberianCurse. This is explicable given the contrasting demographic dynamics between northern andsouthern Kazakhstan, especially the outflow of the Russian population from the northern part of thecountry after independence. Notably, the TPC in urban areas became lower than the national averagefollowing independence. This seems strange given that cities are generally built in locations with
comfortable environments, and thus shows that the transfer of the capital to Astana from Almaty
affected the national TPC of Kazakhstan.
The lowest TPC in Kyrgyzstan was recorded in the late Soviet era, suggesting that a situation
similar to The Siberian Curse may have occurred in this country. Population growth in the eastern
mountainous area halted after the independence, while the population in Bishkek in the Chui valley
and the districts in the southwestern Ferghana valley expanded, although, surprisingly, the average
elevation of the population rose over the same period. This seemingly contradictory situation may
result from the inefficiency of the Soviet style of development and its readjustment after the collapseof the USSR. In other words, this shows that the relationship between altitude and winter cold is nota simple correlation in the human geography of Kyrgyzstan.
While various types of regional information, including the results of remote sensing, haveincreased at an accelerating rate in recent years, how to utilize this vast amount of information is an
important issue in the humanities and social sciences. This case study using climate and elevation
data reexamined The Siberian Curse hypothesis concerning Central Asian countries and highlighted
the usefulness of borderless raster data to relativize any layer of administrative borders.

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