There are only about 150 speakers of Ainu left. There is a language immersion school on Hokkaido, and the name "Sapporo" is Ainu for "broad plain." But the Government of Japan must do more to keep the Ainu language alive. The Japanese Diet declared the Ainu people to be the indigenous people of Japan, and an Ainu museum will be built outside of Tokyo. But if Japan does not encourage the use of the Ainu language, it will be losing an important cultural heritage.
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