Ainu people

The Ainu or the Aynu (Ainu アィヌ Аину Aynu; Japanese: アイヌ Ainu; Russian: Айны Ajny), in the historical Japanese texts the Ezo (蝦夷), are an indigenous people of Japan (Hokkaido, and formerly northeastern Honshu) and Russia (Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and the Kamchatka Peninsula). The official estimated number of the Ainu is 25,000, but unofficially the number is estimated at 200,000, as many Ainu have been completely assimilated into Japanese society and have no knowledge of their ancestry.