New at Reason

Ronald Bailey finds an inadvertent brief for property rights in an unlikely place.

Comments

Danimal | July 13, 2005, 9:56am | #

Is it just me or is Bailey stating the obvious?

I don't think anybody will be surprised to learn that groups that live in poverty because their property was taken from them would have been better off had it not been.

joe | July 13, 2005, 10:06am | #

'note that the Japanese are never described as an "indigenous people."'

Perhaps that's because the Japanse were not the indigenous people of the islands. There is another ethnic group, whose name eludes me at the moment, who were the indigenous people.

alkurta | July 13, 2005, 10:10am | #

Japan's original settlers are called the Ainu.

r0ver | July 13, 2005, 10:11am | #

That bugged me too. Ainu

Melkor | July 13, 2005, 10:34am | #

No matter what Manwe might say, I am the greatest Ainu of all!

Ron Bailey | July 13, 2005, 12:48pm | #

OK, OK, I should be more precise. The Ainu are indigenous to Hokkaido, not the whole of Japan. See URL: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Ainu

Ironchef | July 13, 2005, 2:07pm | #

So what's the statute of limitations for claim to be indigenous anyways? Cuz you know we're all Africans anyways.

I couldn't help but keep thinking of New London when hearing of those governments taking over the property. Ha wouldn't it be nice if the government only took my land to build a damn?

Hakluyt | July 13, 2005, 6:44pm | #

The original inhabitants came to Japan at least 200,000 years ago; they created the world's first polished stone tools. It is from these paleolithic populations that the Ainu are descended; there is also an intermediary group of people known as the Jomon. The early history of Japan is tinged with a lot of controversy; much of it being the stalking horse for criticism of Japan for its actions before and during WWII.