E/CN.4/2006/16/Add.2 page 9 people who declared to be Ainu, while many Ainu conceal their identity to avoid discrimination. The Ministry recognized that between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries, the Ainu in Hokkaido were put into forced labour, deprived of their resources, prevented from practising their traditional activities. After 1867, the Meiji Restoration, modern Japanese nation State started to exploit Hokkaido, and adopted an assimilation policy, so the Ainu society and culture was fatally damaged. This condition continued until the twentieth century. 23. In 1997, a law for the promotion of the Ainu culture was enacted. It establishes the Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu culture, in charge of implementing the law. This text provides for the promotion of the Ainu language and culture, the research on the Ainu and the dissemination of knowledge about Ainu traditions. The Foundation organizes classes to teach the Ainu language, but does not plan to create a specific writing to prevent the Ainu language from disappearing. 24. In relation to the discrimination against Ainu people, the Ministry reported that they mainly face vexations and marriage refusals. Concerning social indicators, 16.1 per cent of the Ainu who finish high school continue into higher education, as opposed to the general average of 34.5 per cent in the area. There is a specific programme for scholarships for Ainu, but there are no quotas in universities for Ainu students, since those would be considered unconstitutional. 25. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Health and Employment has a programme of professional orientation for Ainu, a recruitment service, and lends money to allow Ainu to find an employment. It briefs managers on the discrimination of the Ainu and promotes their recruitment. The Ministry of Justice has local legal services that mediate between parties in cases of individual conflicts or complaints. For example, in cases of marriage refusal linked to the Ainu origin of one of the persons, the legal service intervenes through mediation in order to resolve the conflict. 26. The 1997 law concerns the Ainu culture but does not touch upon the promotion of their human rights. In this regard, the Ministry of Land and Infrastructure indicated that the Japanese Constitution guarantees equality before the law of each Japanese. Therefore, the demands of the Ainu people to get recognition of the rights as indigenous peoples cannot be satisfied, as this would be in breach of the Constitution. C. The people of Okinawa 27. The Government has taken a set of actions toward Okinawa, including formulating the “Okinawa Promotion and Development Plan”, with a view to closing the economic gap with the mainland, establishing the Okinawa Policy Council, composed by all Cabinet ministers and the Governor of Okinawa, so as to deliberate on basic policies regarding Okinawa, and passing the 2002 Law on Special Measures for the Promotion and Development of Okinawa. D. Koreans and other foreigners 28. There are around 2 million documented foreigners in Japan, of whom 607,419 are Koreans. The policy of the Government to fight against the discrimination of Koreans in the labour sector consists in briefing employers on discrimination, administrative guidance in case of discriminatory hiring procedures, and sensitization activities to the whole society. In particular,