Natural History Museum repatriates ancestral remains to Japan

The Natural History Museum has returned the remains of seven ancestors to the Ainu people of Japan.

A ceremony took place at the London museum this week to mark the formal transfer of the remains.

The Ainu people, hunter-gatherer communities who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, are recognised by the Japanese government as an Indigenous ethnic group with a unique language and culture.

The museum said it has been working in close collaboration with the Government of Japan and the Ainu Association of Hokkaido to transfer responsibility for the ancestral remains and return them to their places of origin.

The event on 5 May was attended by the Japanese government’s minister of the cabinet office for Ainu-related policies, Kikawada Hitoshi, as well as representatives from the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, led by its executive director Ōkawa Masaru, and Natural History Museum representatives including director Doug Gurr.

The repatriation went ahead after museum staff carried out detailed archival research to understand the provenance of the ancestral remains, working with historical resources held at several organisations.

A report was shared with the Government of Japan, which then outlined its wishes. The trustees of the Natural History Museum agreed in November 2025 to repatriate the ancestral remains.

On their return to Japan, the remains will be placed in a Memorial Site established in the Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park, Symbolic Space for Ethnic Harmony in accordance with policy based on the Japanese government’s Ainu Policy Promotion Act.

“We, the members of our association, have come to this place to welcome them with the utmost dignity, in accordance with Ainu traditions and customs,” said Masaru.

“Just imagining the feelings of our ancestors who spent long periods of solitude in a distant foreign land where they could not even speak the language fills us with sorrow. But today, our ancestors can finally return to their homeland.

“We believe that our ancestors are surely relieved and deeply happy. We will continue to respectfully and dignifiedly commemorate the spirits we have welcomed, in accordance with the customs passed down from our ancestors.”

Minister Hitoshi said: “I have done our utmost to ensure that all seven sets of ancestral remains can rest peacefully in Japan.

“The Natural History Museum's decision to repatriate the ancestral remains of the seven Ainu people was an extremely important decision in order to protect the pride and dignity of the Ainu people.

“Allowing the ancestral remains, which have been stored in a foreign land for a long time, to be commemorated in their homeland is of great significance in line with the Japanese government's policy of respecting the pride and dignity of the Ainu people, and I am deeply moved that we have received the ancestral remains safely.”

Gurr said the museum recognised “that some of the human remains in our collections were acquired in ways that would not be considered acceptable today, and we acknowledge the impact that this has had on communities”.

He said it was a “great honour” for the museum to host the delegation from Japan to “mark this reunification with their ancestors with the dignity and respect they deserve”.  

The Natural History Museum has returned nearly 600 individuals to their countries or communities of origin, including Australia, New Zealand, Africa and North America. The museum says it has “granted all requests to return ancestors where connections have been established with communities and places of origin”.