Are the Ainu people of Japan of European or Mongolian descent?

Question

I've searched the web and I thought that there is a possibility that they came from the European part of Russia, but started moving eastwards across Siberia when Russia conquered much of Northern Asia. Are there any other theories as to where they originated from? Some websites might help. Many anthropological websites that I visited did not provide much information on this topic.

I've been to Wikipedia and the answer seemed quite dubious as it did not mention much about their origin. So, please do not quote evidences or list Wikipedia as the answers.

Help of any kind would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The present findings suggest that the Ainu retain a certain degree of their own genetic uniqueness, while having higher genetic affinities with other regional populations in Japan and the Nivkhi among Asian populations.

On the paternal side, the vast majority (87.5%) of the Ainu exhibited the Asian-specific YAP+ lineages (Y-haplogroups D-M55 and D-M125), which were distributed only in the Japanese Archipelago in this analysis. On the other hand, the Ainu exhibited no other Y-haplogroups (C-M8, O-M175, and O-M122) common in mainland Japanese and Okinawans. It is noteworthy that the rest of the Ainu gene pool was occupied by the paternal lineage (Y-haplogroup C-M217) from North Asia including Sakhalin. Thus, the present findings suggest that the Ainu retain a certain degree of their own genetic uniqueness, while having higher genetic affinities with other regional populations in Japan and the Nivkhi among Asian populations.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cp...

The archaeological records attest that humans reached Japan, at the eastern edge of Asia, around 30,000 years ago (Glover 1980). At that time, Japan was connected to the Continent by both northern and southern land bridges, enabling two migratory routes. As early as 13,000 years ago, pottery appeared in Japan and Siberia for the first time in the world (Shiraishi 2002). Subsequent technical improvements gave rise to the Japanese Neolithic period known as the Jomon period, in which the population growth was considerable. Later, Continental people arrived in Japan from the Korean peninsula, initiating the Yayoi period, with this migration reaching its maximum at the beginning of the first millennium.

http://www.genome.org/cgi/content/full/1...

So to answer your question:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query...

Analysis of HLA genes and haplotypes in Ainu (from Hokkaido, northern Japan) supports the premise that they descent from Upper Paleolithic populations of East Asia.

Bannai M, Ohashi J, Harihara S, Takahashi Y, Juji T, Omoto K, Tokunaga K.

The Ainu people are assumed to be the descendants of pre-agricultural native populations of northern Japan, while the majority of population of present-day Japan (Hondo-Japanese) is considered to have descended mainly from post-neolithic migrants. Sequence-level polymorphisms of the HLA-class I (HLA-A and HLA-B) genes were investigated in DNA samples of 50 Ainu living in Hidaka district, Hokkaido. HLA-A2402, A0201, A0206, A2601, A3101, B1501, B5101, B3901, and B3501 were observed at frequencies of more than 10% and most of these have previously been found in populations of not only Asians but also North and South American Indians.

Answer 2

European in facial and body features.  It's a mystery for their origin.   The are the Japanese equivalent of Australia's aborigines.   People who were discriminated against because they looked different that the majority of the population.

Answer 3

Originally mid+eastern, later oriental eastern by adaption.

Answer 4

i don't know but a lot of Chinese people of Mongolian descent i heard that roman descendants were found in china people in northern china were tested to see if they have European ancestry these people are descendants of Roman legionares

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...

Answer 5

They actually seem to be aborignals from the islands around japan and are more japanese than not.  Many DNA tests have concluded that they do share some mongol DNA, but this is natural as japan would have been populated from the mainland.  Okhotsk people are the most racially similar.

Answer 6

The Caucasian theory of Ainu Origin is a much outdated model; they share zilch more genes with Eruopeans in terms of genes than any other Asian population.

This might come to you as a surprise, but a significant portion of N. Asian population are relatively fair skinned as a result of evolutionary adaptation to cloudy climate where sunlight has been relatively sparse during geological times.

The Ainu have lived for centiries in two areas mostly; on the lower reaches of the Amur (Heilong-jiang), Sakhaliyan Peninsula, and on islands such as Hokkaido and Kuril islands.

The origin of the Ainu is the Olduvai Gorge in East Africa in the Great Rift Valley, just like the rest of humanity per the Exodus theory of Origin of Modern Humans.

Answer 7

They show some relationiship to the Russian Nivkhis, but share standard Mogoloid haplotypes generally.

   "analysis of genetic distances calculated from the mtDNA data revealed that the Ainu seemed to be related to both the Nivkhi and other Japanese populations (such as mainland Japanese and Okinawans) at the population level."

The best guess is that the first colonists of Asia were more Caucasian looking, but there was a rapid expansion of Monglooid people in Asia fairly recently. The oldest Mongoloid skull is only about 7,000 years old in Asia. The Mongoloid Yayoi Japanese colonists only turn up in Japan about 6,000 years ago, the Ainu where there from about 17,000 years ago at least.

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpre...

Ainu DNA studies on file...

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpre...

Answer 8

The latest genetic studies have revealed that the Ainu are most likely a hybrid of Nivkh-related "Okhotsk people" from the north (Sakhalin, etc.) and Japanese/Ryukyuan-related "Jomon people" from the south (Honshu, etc.). Their mtDNA is split nearly half-and-half between Nivkh-related lineages and Japanese-related lineages, while their Y-DNA is mostly of a type that is found at high frequency among Japanese of eastern Honshu (haplogroup D2) with a minority (approximately 15% according to current data, which amounts to only 20 sampled male individuals) of Y-DNA related to Nivkhs and Mongols (haplogroup C3*).

It is possible that our interpretation of Ainu genetics may evolve as more voluminous and detailed data is brought to light; in particular, more sampling of the last living Ainus is needed, because the number of samples that have been taken so far is woefully insufficient.

Answer 9

They are the "white" people that live in Japan right, maybe Hokadio (Sorry if I misspelled it)?  Well, I think that they could have come from Russia, but It might just be that humans are more alike than we think.  They live on a kind of cold, northern isolated island right?  That climate is a lot like Europe, and Japanese tend to be lighter skinned anyway.  So maybe they were the people that lived in Japan for centuries before they knew about China, Korea, and the surrounding islanders.

Answer 10

European descent is not very meaningful, since it implies that they came from Europe. Europe is a rather new term for land that is rather old. The Ainu are classified as Caucasoid peoples, or Caucasians, if that is what you are asking.