[Chris Talk]

By our usual definition, appearance, a pure Ainu is white. A Caucasian.

Furthermore, the population in Japan generally is not in effect "pure Mongoloid" by race as Koreans or Chinese might be, but represents about on the average a 50/50 cross with some Caucasian people, whether the Ainu narrowly defined, or some other similar and related Caucasoid people that was on the islands before the Korean related people arrived. Call them Ainu or Jomon.

I think what cannot be said out loud in Japan is, that while the Ainu and other minorities have been very ill-treated traditonally by the Japanese, at the same time their own Emperor and Elite are the ones who are the most Ainu/Jomon looking of all..."Sons of Heaven" with the whitest skins, and the least Mongoloid in appearance, of any Japanese at all!

[blam]

"..."Sons of Heaven" with the whitest skins, and the least Mongoloid in appearance, of any Japanese at all!"

Yup, I've read one anthropologist speculate that the Geshui(sp) Girl tradition of 'white-face' was and imitation of the 'royals'.

[RightWhale]

The Japanese are descended from the Mongols.