In population genetics, research has been done on the genetic origins of modern Japanese people.
From the point of view of genetic studies, Japanese people:
A common origin of Japanese has been proposed by a number of scholars since Arai Hakuseki first brought up the theory and Fujii Sadamoto, a pioneer of modern archaeology in Japan, also treated the issue in 1781. [16] But after the end of World War II, Kotondo Hasebe and Hisashi Suzuki 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. [17] However, Kazuro Hanihara announced a new racial admixture theory in 1984. [17] Hanihara also announced the theory "dual structure model" in English in 1991. [18] 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. [17] 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. [19] Hiroto Takamiya of the Sapporo University suggested that the people of Kyushu immigrated to Okinawa between the 10th and 12th centuries CE. [20] [21] Regardless, both Northern and Southern Jōmon were craniofacially different from modern Mainland Japanese and had European-like features [22] and a 'well-defined and less flat upper face' respectively. [23] But they still had hair and teeth morphology that was characteristic of East Asian peoples, especially Northern Jōmon. [22]
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." [29] 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. [30] 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. [31] 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. [32] 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. [33] [34]
Recent studies have revealed that Jomon people are considerably genetically different from any other population, including modern-day Japanese.
— Takahashi et al. 2019, (Adachi et al., 2011; Adachi and Nara, 2018)
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. [48] [ 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. [49] Suwa Haruo [50] argued that Wa-zoku (Wajin) might have been related to the Baiyue (百越). [51]
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. [5]
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 genetical difference between Yayoi and Kofun groups is not significant enough and that the temporal discrepancy of the periods is minuscule.
Stephen Pheasant (1986), 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. [68] [69]
Rajvir Yadav et al. (2000) stated the sitting height to stature ratios of different populations: South Indian (0.4922), female Indian (0.4974), Eastern Indian (0.4991), Southeastern African (0.5096), Central Indian (0.5173), US (0.5202), Western Indian (0.5243), German (0.5266) and Japanese (0.5452). [70]
Hirofumi Matsumura et al. (2001) and Hideo Matsumoto et al. (2009) said that the Japanese and Vietnamese people are regarded to be a mix of Northeast Asians and Southeast Asians. However, the amount of Northern genetics is higher in Japanese people compared to Vietnamese, who are closer to other Southeast Asians (Thai or Bamar people). [71] [72]
Neville Moray (2005) said that, for Korean and Japanese pilots, sitting height is more than 54% of their stature, with about 46% of their stature from leg length. Moray said that, for Americans and most Europeans, sitting height is about 52% of their stature, with about 48% of their stature from leg length. Moray indicated that modifications in basic cockpit geometry are required to accommodate Japanese and Vietnamese pilots. Moray said that the Japanese have longer torsos and a higher shoulder point than the Vietnamese, but the Japanese have about similar arm lengths to the Vietnamese, so the control stick would have to be moved 8 cm closer to the pilot for the Japanese and 7 cm closer to the pilot for the Vietnamese. Moray said that, due to having shorter legs than Americans, rudder pedals must be moved closer to the pilot by 10 cm for the Japanese and 12 cm for the Vietnamese. [73]
Ashley Montagu (1989) said that the "Mongoloid skull generally, whether Chinese or Japanese, has been rather more neotenized than the Caucasoid or European..." [74]
Ann Kumar (1998) said that Michael Pietrusewsky (1992) said that, in a craniometric study, the cranial bones of Southeast Asians (Borneo, Vietnam, Sulu, Java, and Sulawesi etc.) are closer to Japanese, in that order, than Mongolian and Chinese populations are close to Japanese. In the craniometric study, Michael Pietrusewsky (1992) said that, even though Japanese people cluster with Mongolians, Chinese and Southeast Asians in a larger Asian cluster, the cranial bones of Japanese people are more closely aligned with several Mainland and Island Southeast Asian samples than with Mongolians and Chinese. However, Pietrusewsky (1992) also said, more research is needed on the similarity of the cranial bones between Japanese and Southeast Asians. [75] [76]
In a craniometric study, Pietrusewsky (1994) found that the Japanese series, which was a series that spanned from the Yayoi period to modern times, formed a single branch with Korea. [77] Later, Pietrusewsky (1999) found, however, that Korean and Yayoi people were very highly separated in the East Asian cluster, indicating that the connection that Japanese have with Korea would not have derived from Yayoi people. [77] However, in a follow-up study, Pietrusewsky (2010) corrected that East Asians and Southeast Asians were markedly separated from each other. He found that Koreans had the most similar cranial bones to ancient and modern Japanese including the Yayoi people and Jōmon people, followed by Taiwan and Hainan. [52] He stated that a common origin of Northeast Asians could be traced and that they began entering the Japanese archipelago at the beginning of the Yayoi period. [52]
Park Dae-kyoon et al. (2001) said that distance analysis based on thirty-nine non-metric cranial traits showed that Koreans are closer craniometrically to Kazakhs and Mongols than to the populations in China and Japan. [78]
Torimitsu et. al (2024) states that there is quantifiable dimorphism in the cranium of Japanese people, similar to Thais, Indonesians, Filipinos and Malays. In addition, the nasal height and breadth of the Japanese were reported to be greater and smaller than Filipinos respectively, although Thais possessed greater nasal height and breadth than the Japanese. Japanese skulls also share some similarities with Hispanics, implied by the frequency of Hispanic skulls from southwestern United States being misclassified as Asian, particularly Japanese. [79]
The Ryukyuans are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group indigenous to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch from the island of Kyushu to the island of Taiwan. Administratively, most Ryukyuans live in either Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture within Japan. They speak the Ryukyuan languages, considered to be one of the two branches of the Japonic language family, the other being Japanese and its dialects.
The Yayoi period is a period in Japanese history that started in the late Neolithic period in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age.
The Kofun period is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD, following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is the earliest era of recorded history in Japan, but studies depend heavily on archaeology since the chronology of historical sources tends to be distorted. The word kofun is Japanese for the type of burial mound dating from this era.
Japanese people are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago. Japanese people constitute 97.4% of the population of the country of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 125 million people are of Japanese descent, making them one of the largest ethnic groups. Approximately 120.8 million Japanese people are residents of Japan, and there are approximately 4 million members of the Japanese diaspora, known as Nikkeijin (日系人).
The Yamato or Wajin are an East Asian ethnic group that comprises over 98% of the population of Japan. Genetic and anthropometric studies have shown that the Yamato people predominantly descend from the Yayoi and Kofun people, who migrated to Japan from the continent beginning during the 1st millennium BC, and to a lesser extent the indigenous Jōmon people who had inhabited the Japanese archipelago for millennia prior.
The Japanese Paleolithic period is the period of human inhabitation in Japan predating the development of pottery, generally before 10,000 BC. The starting dates commonly given to this period are from around 40,000 BC, with recent authors suggesting that there is good evidence for habitation from c. 36,000 BC onwards. The period extended to the beginning of the Mesolithic Jōmon period, or around 14,000 BC.
Hāfu is a Japanese language term used to refer to a person born in Japan with half-Japanese and half non-Japanese ancestry. The word can also be used to describe anyone with mixed-racial ancestry in general. As many consider Japan to be one of the most homogeneous societies on the planet, children who have one parent of non-Japanese ancestry are called hāfu Japanese and often face prejudice and discrimination from native Japanese citizens of full Japanese ancestry. Hāfu individuals are well represented in Japanese media and abroad, and recent studies in the 2010s estimate that 1 in 30 children born in Japan are born to interracial couples.
The Yayoi people were an ancient people that immigrated to the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period and are characterized through Yayoi material culture. Some argue for an earlier start of the Yayoi period, between 1000 and 800 BC, but this date is controversial. The people of the Yayoi culture are regarded as the spreaders of agriculture and the Japonic languages throughout the whole archipelago, and were characterized by both local Jōmon hunter-gatherer and mainland Asian migrant ancestry.
Jōmon people is the generic name of the indigenous hunter-gatherer population that lived in the Japanese archipelago during the Jōmon period. They were united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism and cultural complexity.
The classification of the Japonic languages and their external relations is unclear. Linguists traditionally consider the Japonic languages to belong to an independent family; indeed, until the classification of Ryukyuan and eventually Hachijō as separate languages within a Japonic family rather than as dialects of Japanese, Japanese was considered a language isolate.
Chuka-kei people, or Chinese people in Japan include any Japanese individuals self-identifying as ethnic Chinese or Chinese permanent residents of Japan living in Japan. People aged 22 or older cannot possess dual-citizenship in Japan, so Chinese possessing Japanese citizenship typically no longer possess Chinese citizenship. The term "Chinese people" typically refers to the Han Chinese, the main ethnic group living in China (PRC), Taiwan (ROC) and Singapore. Officially, China (PRC) is home to 55 additional ethnic minorities, including people such as Tibetans, though these people might not self-identify as Chinese. Han Chinese people have had a long history in Japan as a minority.
In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup Y is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup.
The Minatogawa Man or Minatogawa specimens are the prehistoric population of Okinawa, Japan, represented by four skeletons, two male and two female, and some isolated bones dated between 20,000 and 22,000 years BCE. They are among the oldest skeletons of hominins yet discovered in Japan.
In the context of the recent African origin of modern humans, the Southern Dispersal scenario refers to the early migration along the southern coast of Asia, from the Arabian Peninsula via Persia and India to Southeast Asia and Oceania. Alternative names include the "southern coastal route" or "rapid coastal settlement", with later descendants of those migrations eventually colonizing the rest of Eastern Eurasia, the remainder of Oceania, and the Americas.
In Japanese history, the Jōmon period is the time between c. 14,000 and 300 BC, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism and cultural complexity. The name "cord-marked" was first applied by the American zoologist and orientalist Edward S. Morse, who discovered sherds of pottery in 1877 and subsequently translated "straw-rope pattern" into Japanese as Jōmon. The pottery style characteristic of the first phases of Jōmon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the surface of wet clay and is generally accepted to be among the oldest in the world.
Sanganji shell mound is a Late-to-Final Jōmon shell mound in Shinchi, Fukushima, Tōhoku region, Japan. The shell mound was excavated in 1952 by the Special Committee for Jomon Chronology of the Japanese Archaeological Association and in 1954 by the University of Tokyo Department of Anthropology. The remains of over 40 individuals were excavated from the site. The remains are now housed in The University Museum at the University of Tokyo.
Haplogroup C-M8 also known as Haplogroup C1a1 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is one of two branches of Haplogroup C1a, one of the descendants of Haplogroup C-M130.
Haplogroup D-M55 (M64.1/Page44.1) also known as Haplogroup D1a2a is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is one of two branches of Haplogroup D1a. The other is D1a1, which is found with high frequency in Tibetans and other Tibeto-Burmese populations and geographical close groups. D is also distributed with low to medium frequency in Central Asia, East Asia, and Mainland Southeast Asia.
This article summarizes the genetic makeup and population history of East Asian peoples and their connection to genetically related populations such as Southeast Asians and North Asians, as well as Oceanians, and partly, Central Asians, South Asians, and Native Americans. They are collectively referred to as "East Eurasians" in population genomics.
Toraijin refers to the people who came to Japan from mainland Asia in ancient times, as well as their descendants. Up until the 1960s, these people were commonly called the Kikajin, meaning 'naturalized people', but beginning in the 1970s, the term was replaced by Toraijin, meaning 'people who have crossed over' as not all those who came to Japan became naturalized. They arrived in Japan as early as the Jōmon or Yayoi period, and their arrival became more significant from the end of the 4th century to the late 7th century. During this period, they introduced Confucianism, learning, medicine, the calendar, and cultural practices such as Sue ware production and weaving to Japan. They were favored by the Yamato Imperial Court, and many were appointed to government positions.
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.
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