The Ainu people of northern Japan have an autonomous musical tradition.
Genres include the oldest, yukar (mimicry), which is a form of epic poetry, and upopo, in which "the second contrapuntal voice had to imitate the musical formula in the first contrapuntal voice (not heard until the last moment), at an interval much shorter than that in our western canons, since the second voice attacks the preceding musical formula before the first voice has finished it." (Nattiez 1990, p.71)
The most famous contemporary performer of Ainu music appears to be the revivalist Oki.
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