Paleolithic tools in Japan from 120,000 years ago

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Most fascinating discovery the one that Mundo Neandertal mentions today: lithic tools have been found in Japan dating (by stratigraphy) to 127-110,000 years ago. The information I could read so far is very limited (metions sharp lithic tools, not the typical Mosuterian or Acheulean biface) but it may suggest that our kin were already in Asia as early as that date.

Of course, the tools could have been made by some other Homo species, like Homo erectus but the dates are in concordance with the earliest known presence of our species in West Asia (dated arguably to maybe as early as 130,000 BP) and maybe South Asia too, where the first bladelets appear c. 105,000 BP. Even if not conclusive as of yet, the finding seems to add evidence to support an early out of Africa migration at the time of the Abbassia Pluvial, when the Sahara was green and transitable.


Update (Sep 11): I found a half-decent article from the blog Heritage of Japan that even includes a picture of some of the 20 artifacts. Most interestingly the artifacts have been re-dated to c. 70 Ka ago, a quite reasonable date for the arrival of the very first H. sapiens to the area. They are clearly  not Acheulean (the technology of H. erectus) and could well belong to the flake industry tradition of our kin in Eastern Eurasia.

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Anti-G8 activists preventively criminalized as possible "terrorists"

The next G8 summit will be in Japan and the people there are already getting ready to protest. But police is getting ready too and has distributed an incredible poster that associates mostly peaceful anti-globalization grassroots struggle with "terrorism":

(source: Gipfelsoli)

The G8 is a select club of some of the wealthiest and most powerful states in the world and their summits, as well as other related conferences, are percieved as a sort of elitist Global Government. The G8 members are: USA (1st power by GDP (PPP)), Japan (3rd), Germany (5th), United Kingdom (6th), Russia (7th), France (8th), Italy (10th) and Canada (13th). China (2nd global power by this standard), India (4th), Brazil (9th), Spain (11th), Mexico (12th) and South Korea (14th) are for historical reasons (read: Eurocentrism, neocolonialism, etc.) not included in the group. Japan is the only G8 member that does not have European culture and, together with Russia, the only one that does not belong to NATO.

More info on Japan police-induced paranoia, with rare collectable posters or 21st century parlamentary police-state can be found at Debito.

Schedule for your alternative holidays in Japan (anti-globalization protests and the like):

June:
· 26-27 (Kyoto): Demonstration against the Foreign Ministers' meeting
· 28-29 (Tokyo): Deminstration against the G8

July:
· 1 (Tokyo): International Forum against the G8
· 1-4 (Sapporo): Tematic activities
· 3 (Sapporo): Punks against the G8
· 3 (Sapporo): International Conference on antimilitarism and women
· 5 (Sapporo): International Action Day
· 5 (Chitose): Protest at the airport
· 7-9 (Lake Toya): Blockade of G8 meeting
· 6-8 (Sapporo): Alternative Summit
· 7-9 (Lake Toya): Anarchist Football Cup

(Source: La Haine)

Sites to watch:
· NO-G8 Action Japan
· Japan Indymedia

Ainu finally recognized as indigenous people by Japan

After centuries of disrespect, land robbery and forced assimilation the descendants of the ancient Jomon people (the first known to work pottery anywhere, in spite of being hunter-gatherers) will be finally been acknowledged a status as indigenous group today by the Japanese Parliament.

The Ainu, descendants of the epipaleolithic Jomon culture dwelt once in all or nearly all Japan but were displaced by the agriculturalist Yayoi invaders beginning c. 500 BCE, who migrated probably from coastal China (Jiangsu province). In the following centuries they were displaced further and further northwards until the rather unhospitable island of Honsu became their last refuge.

An Ainu elder from the times of B&W photography

Japan has a centralist nationalist tradition and had so far declined to accept the existence of the Ainu as a separate ethnicity. They even called them "former aborigines", suggesting that assimilaton was the only way to go. Japan has also another ethnic minority in the south: the Ryukyuans, whose language is akin to Japanese (Japonic family) but different.

The new legal recognition comes as response of growing Ainu activism and ethnic pride in the last decades. It is so far only of symbolic value but should be the basic legal frame that may allow the administration to develope further measures in the future. Time will say but is at least a step forward.