More than most countries, Japan thinks of itself as uniquely homogenous and, in terms of language, culture and origin, ethnographers broadly agree. But the fair-skinned Ainu - supremely hairy of body, with luxuriant beards on the men and tattooed lips on the women - are the notable exception.
One thing is increasingly clear: they are more obviously the descendants of Japan's original inhabitants, the Jomon, inventors of the world's earliest pottery, than are modern Japanese, who are descended from later settlers from Korea. This infuriates Japan's racial chauvinists. http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11707607