Despite devastating circumstances where the development of a viable social movement seemed impossible, the Ainu regained their indigenous pride in the late 1970s and have made several legislative breakthroughs. The first breakthrough was a seat in the House of Councillors in 1994. Then came the official recognition by the Japanese government of ethnic minority status in 1991. The third breakthrough came in 1997 when the Japanese government passed a new law to promote and protect Ainu culture. Finally, in 2008, a resolution acknowledged the Ainu as an indigenous people. With such a devastating history and in a country that thinks of itself as “virtually homogeneous,” how were the Ainu, with a shrinking population of 25,000 people, able to launch such a successful indigenous movement? The answer lies in the Ainu’s use of international resources. Finding that Ainu activism within Japan was not very effective, the Ainu reached out to international resources such as other indigenous groups and the United Nations. Throughout the 1970s, the Ainu met with other indigenous peoples in the US, Canada, China, Australia, New Zealand, and Scandinavia to share their experiences and learn how to generate successful activism. The Ainu met with the Inuit people in Alaska, who taught the Ainu about self-governance, education policy, and financing autonomous activities through tax revenue from natural resources such as oil. In such a way, other indigenous peoples gave models for Ainu to emulate. In fact, the proposal which passed as the breakthrough 1997 cultural promotion law was heavily inspired by indigenous rights movements in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. International exposure to indigenous peoples galvanized Ainu activism by giving the Ainu an understanding of how to revitalize a repressed identity. In 1986, the Ainu sent a letter to the UN to examine the position of the Ainu in Japan after the Japanese Prime Minister made a comment that pushed the idea that Japan is a homogeneous country, in which only the Japanese reside. The appeal to the UN Center of Human Rights generated enough publicity to force the Japanese government to acknowledge the Ainu as a distinct group at the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1987. The Ainu connection to the UN also led to the UN questioning the Japanese government about not recognizing the Ainu as an indigenous people in the 2008 UN human rights council, which pressued the Japanese government into passing the breakthrough resolution of 2008, which recognized the Ainu as an indigenous people. One Ainu activist said that “We were unable to get out of that thinking, but UN activities gave us a chance to get out of that”—referring to how the UN allowed the Ainu to become proud of their identity once again. Hence, international relations with indigenous peoples gave the Ainu a better grasp on indigenous rights activism, and the Ainu connection to the UN allowed for the Ainu to take advantage of an international entity and pressure the Japanese government.