There is much controversy surrounding the social and legal treatment of minorities. Although the Japanese consider themselves to be a homogeneous people, minorities do exist, and they often suffer discrimination. The largest indigenous minority are the two to four million "hisabetsu buraku" ("discriminated communities"), descendants of the outcast communities of feudal Japan. Other such minorities include the Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of northern Japan, and the people of Okinawa. Japan also has several hundred thousand native residents of Korean and Chinese descent who together with other foreign residents experience varying forms and degrees of discrimination.