Ryukyuan people

The Ryukyuan people (Okinawan: 琉球民族 (るーちゅーみんずく), romanized: Ruuchuu minzuku or どぅーちゅーみんずく, Duuchuu minzuku, Japanese: 琉球民族/りゅうきゅうみんぞく, romanized: Ryūkyū minzoku, also Uchinanchu, Lewchewan or Loochooan) are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group native to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch between the islands of Kyushu and Taiwan. Administratively, they live in either the Okinawa Prefecture or the Kagoshima Prefecture within Japan. They speak one of the Ryukyuan languages, considered to be one of the two branches of the Japonic language family, the other being Japanese and its dialects. Hachijō is sometimes considered by linguists to constitute a third branch.

Ryukyuans are not a recognized minority group in Japan, as Japanese authorities consider them a subgroup of the Japanese people, akin to the Yamato people. Although officially unrecognized, Ryukyuans constitute the largest ethnolinguistic minority group in Japan, with more than 1.8 million living in the Okinawa Prefecture alone. Ryukyuans inhabit the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture as well, and have contributed to a considerable Ryukyuan diaspora. Over a million more ethnic Ryukyuans and their descendants are dispersed elsewhere in Japan and worldwide, most commonly in the United States, Brazil, and, to a lesser extent, in other territories where there is also a sizable Japanese diaspora, such as Argentina, Chile and Mexico. In the majority of countries, the Ryukyuan and Japanese diaspora are not differentiated, so there are no reliable statistics for the former one.

Ryukyuans have a distinct culture with some matriarchal elements, native religion and cuisine which had a fairly late (12th century) introduction of rice. The population lived on the islands in isolation for many centuries. In the 14th century, three separate Okinawan political polities merged into the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429–1879), which continued the maritime trade and tributary relations started in 1372 with Ming China. In 1609, the Satsuma Domain (based in Kyushu) invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom. The Kingdom maintained a fictive independence in vassal status, in a dual subordinate status to both China and Japan, because Tokugawa Japan was prohibited to trade (directly) with China.

During the Japanese Meiji era, the kingdom became the Ryukyu Domain (1872–1879), after which it was politically annexed by the Empire of Japan. In 1879, after the annexation, the territory was reorganized as Okinawa Prefecture, with the last king (Shō Tai) forcibly exiled to Tokyo. China renounced its claims to the islands in 1895. During this period, the Meiji government, which sought to assimilate the Ryukyuan people as Japanese (Yamato), suppressed Ryukyuan ethnic identity, tradition, culture, and language. After World War II, the Ryūkyū Islands were occupied by the United States between 1945 and 1950 and then from 1950 to 1972. Since the end of World War II, Ryukyuans have expressed strong resentment against the Japanese government and against U.S. military facilities stationed in Okinawa.

United Nations special rapporteur on discrimination and racism Doudou Diène, in his 2006 report, noted a perceptible level of discrimination and xenophobia against the Ryukyuans, with the most serious discrimination they endure linked to their opposition of American military installations in the archipelago.