In population genetics, extensive research has been done on the genetic origins of modern Japanese people.
Historically, Japanese people received genetic contributions from peoples related to the Jōmon period, [1] Yayoi period, [2] [3] and arguably, the Kofun period (Toraijin). [4] [5]
Genetically, they are categorized into three separate, but related groups: Ainu, Ryukyuan and Mainland (Yamato). According to modern genetic analyses, they primarily have Northeast Asian, East Asian, and to a lesser extent, heterogeneous Jōmon ancestries. [6] [7]
Anthropologically, they are classified under the "Northeast Asian" cluster and show strong resemblance with Koreans [8] [9] and to an extent, southern East Asian groups. [10] [11]
A common origin of Japanese has been proposed by a number of scholars since Arai Hakuseki first brought up the theory and Fujii Sadamoto (藤井 貞幹), also known as Teikan Tou [ ja ] (藤 貞幹), a pioneer of modern archaeology in Japan, also treated the issue in 1781. [12] But after the end of World War II, Kotondo Hasebe [ ja ] (長谷部 言人) and Hisashi Suzuki [ ja] (鈴木 尚) claimed that the origin of Japanese people was not the newcomers in the Yayoi period (300 BCE – 300 CE) but the people in the Jōmon period. [6] However, Kazuro Hanihara [ ja ] (埴原 和郎) announced a new racial admixture theory in 1984. [6] Hanihara also announced the theory "dual structure model" in English in 1991. [13] According to Hanihara, modern Japanese lineages began with Jōmon people, who moved into the Japanese archipelago during the Paleolithic. Hanihara believed that there was a second wave of immigrants, from Northeast Asia to Japan from the Yayoi period. Following a population expansion in Neolithic times, these newcomers then found their way to the Japanese archipelago sometime during the Yayoi period. As a result, miscegenation was common in the island regions of Kyūshū, Shikoku, and Honshū, but did not prevail in the outlying islands of Okinawa and Hokkaidō, and the Ryukyuan and Ainu people continued to dominate there. Mark J. Hudson claimed that the main ethnic image of Japanese people was biologically and linguistically formed from 400 BCE to 1,200 CE. [6] Currently, the most well-regarded theory is that present-day Japanese are descendants of both the indigenous Jōmon people and the immigrant Yayoi people.
On the other hand, a study published in October 2009 by the National Museum of Nature and Science et al. concluded that the Minatogawa Man, who was found in Okinawa and was regarded as evidence that the Jōmon people were not a homogenous group and that these southern Jōmon came to Japan via a southern route and had a slender and more neo-Mongoloid face unlike the Northern Jōmon. [14] Hiroto Takamiya of Sapporo University suggested that the people of Kyushu immigrated to Okinawa between the 10th and 12th centuries CE. [15] [16] Regardless, both Northern and Southern Jōmon were craniofacially different from modern Mainland Japanese and had European-like features [17] and a 'well-defined and less flat upper face' respectively. [18] But they still had hair and teeth morphology that was characteristic of East Asian peoples, especially Northern Jōmon. [17]
The modern Japanese cluster is said to be the most similar with the Korean one; in a haplotype-based study, the Japanese cluster was found to share 87–94% of its genetic components with the Korean cluster, compared with a Han Chinese result of only 0–8%, a distinct contrast. Moreover, the genetic affinity to the Korean cluster was particularly strong among a cluster hailing from Shimane specifically and Honshu more broadly, but relatively less pronounced, albeit still overwhelming, in the Kyushu clusters. In any case, however, the study clarifies that "the estimate of ancestry profile cannot provide the definitive history of original migration, unless it will be further verified against historical evidence." [8] Some studies suggest a genetic connection between Koreans and Southeast Asian populations. A 2017 study by Ulsan University analyzed a 7,700-year-old skull in Korea, finding evidence of genetic links to ancient populations, including those from Southeast Asia, such as Vietnamese people. This research highlights the complex migration patterns in East Asia’s prehistory. [24] Similarly, Japanese research conducted in 1999 proposed that the Yayoi people, an ancient population contributing to modern Japanese ancestry, may have migrated from the Yangtze River basin in southern China. This was supported by DNA analyses showing similarities between Yayoi remains in southwestern Japan and early Han Dynasty remains from China’s Jiangsu Province. [25] However, other studies suggest that modern Koreans share closer genetic ties with Central Asian and Northern East Asian populations. A mitochondrial DNA analysis revealed a genetic affinity between Koreans and Mongolians, indicating a shared Central Asian ancestry. Additionally, genetic research suggests that while Koreans share some common ancestry with other East Asian populations, their genetic ties with the Chinese are relatively more distant. [26] Genome-wide studies further demonstrate that Koreans are genetically closest to Yamato Japanese and Manchu populations, reflecting shared ancestry and historical interactions, while genetic connections between Koreans and Southeast Asians are more limited. [27] [28]
Some theories propose that the Yayoi people introduced wet rice cultivation to Japan from the Korean peninsula and Jiangnan near the Yangtze River Delta in ancient China. [43] [ page needed ] Additionally, some scholars suggest that the Yayoi and their ancestors, the Wajin, may have originated from areas like Yunnan province in southern China. [44] Suwa Haruo [45] argued that Wa-zoku (Wajin) might have been related to the Baiyue (百越). [46]
A September 2021 study published in the journal Science Advances proposed that the people of Japan bore genetic signatures from three ancient populations rather than just two as previously thought. [54]
However recently, the tripartite ancestry theory is being met with criticism since its introduction in 2021. In essence, Japanese researchers claim that a tripartite theory is redundant as the genealogical difference between Yayoi and Kofun groups is not significant enough and that the temporal discrepancy of the periods is minuscule. Japanese linguists also state that the languages spoken during the periods are generally related to each another and that the speakers were most likely related.
Stephen Pheasant who taught anatomy, biomechanics and ergonomics at the Royal Free Hospital and the University College, London, said that Far Eastern people have proportionately shorter lower limbs than European and black African people. Pheasant said that the proportionately short lower limbs of Far Eastern people is a difference that is most characterized in Japanese people, less characterized in Korean and Chinese people, and least characterized in Vietnamese and Thai people. [70] [71]
The term Yayoi has four uses, which can create much confusion. First, it is the designation of the period beginning with the introduction of rice agriculture around 1000 BC until the advent of the Mounded Tomb Culture in the third century AD. Yayoi is a period designation exclusive to Japan; it includes both farmers and hunter–gatherers and entails the agricultural transition in a time-transgressive and regionally disparate process. Second, 'Yayoi people' may refer to anyone living in the Japanese Islands in the Yayoi period, or third, Yayoi may refer specifically to admixed people (Mumun + Jōmon in varying in proportions and across great distances). Fourth, Yayoi may indicate acculturation: the adoption of (rice) agriculture (and other continental material culture) by Jōmon-lineage people in the Yayoi period. All of these conflicting aspects of Yayoi must be kept in mind and clearly defined in any discussion.
there are strong indications that the neighbouring Baekje state (in the southwest) was predominantly Japonic-speaking until it was linguistically Koreanized.
[東アジア系先祖は] 漢民族とは明らかに違うと思います。中国南部にいたので全く違います。朝鮮語ていうか、韓国語とは文法がほぼ同じという状況であります。 [The East Asian ancestry immigrants] were clearly different from the Han Chinese. They're from the lower parts of China, so the two are completely different. The consensus is that the immigrants spoke a language with a grammar almost identical to the modern Korean language.
[...] the beginning of the Yayoi culture was heavily influenced by the Mumun culture of the southern Korean Peninsula, and some migrants from this region are thought to have moved into northern Kyushu. If Proto-Japonic spread to northern Kyushu from the southern Korean Peninsula at the beginning of the Yayoi culture with migrants, then we can assume that Proto-Japonic was spoken by the people of the Mumun culture. [...] Proto-Japonic languages are thought to have gradually replaced the local Jomon languages in these areas from the Late Yayoi to the beginning of the Kofun period, 2nd – 3rd centuries AD.
— Kazuo Miyamoto, The emergence of ‘Transeurasian’ language families in Northeast Asia as viewed from archaeological evidence
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