The history of Japan is difficult to define, but if you start with the earliest human activity in the Japanese archipelago, it can be traced back to the Paleolithic period, about 30,000 years ago. At that time, the Japanese archipelago was still connected to the Asian mainland, and some hunter-gatherers migrated from the mainland to Japan. They left behind some relics such as stone tools, bone tools, and pottery that testify to their existence.
2,000 years ago, the Han Dynasty also had written records about the Japanese Party, and at that time, the Han Dynasty and Southeast Asia's Nanyue Kingdom and other countries began to communicate with some tribes on the Japanese archipelago.
In some documents, they mentioned some of the place names and names of people on the Japanese archipelago, and the word "Wa" began to appear in Chinese monuments, as well as other names such as evil remnants and slave countries, which are the earliest written records of Japan.
About 1,600 years ago, during the Asuka period, Japan had a form of government, and at that time, some tribes in the Japanese archipelago gradually formed a country centered on Yamato, known as the Wa Province or Yamato Province. They began to use kanji as scripts, established a set of laws and systems, implemented the emperor system, and carried out some internal reforms and external expansion. These are the signs of Japan's earliest state formation.
So, in the long run, the length of Japan's history is between 30,000 and 1,600 years.
Although the genetic characteristics of the Yamato nation (native to Japan) are homogeneous, the origin of the Yamato nation has always been thought to be twofold. The latest research shows that the formation of the Japanese nation cannot be explained simply by the hybridization between the Yayoi and Jomon peoples. On the contrary, a number of recently published studies have provided a large number of new data and samples showing that the Japanese, and certainly the Ainu of Hokkaido and the Ryukyuan people of the Ryukyu Islands, are primarily made up of three main ancestral groups. These three groups can be divided into three ancestral components, namely the Jomon component, the Yaseigen component, and the ancient mound component.
The Jomon period can be divided into many phases, but the entire period is generally considered to have lasted from 14,000 BC to 1,000 BC. The people of the Jomon period were mainly hunter-gatherers, making a living from fishing, hunting, and to a certain extent farming. Jomon is the name given to the pottery of this era. Jomon pottery is one of the oldest in the world, and the Jomon people used relatively advanced tools made from shells and bones. Although the people of the Jomon culture are often described as gatherers, they were more sedentary than hunter-gatherers elsewhere in the world.
The arrival of the Yayoi people in Japan marked the end of the Jomon period. Their arrival was once estimated to have been around 300 BC, but more recent archaeological evidence suggests that they may have arrived as early as 1000 BC. The Yayoi people migrated from the Korean Peninsula and brought with them the techniques of rice cultivation, which was a new way of agriculture in Japan. With the introduction of agriculture, social classes began to evolve, and parts of the region began to unify under the rule of powerful landlords. Chinese history books of the Han and Wei dynasties have documented that in the east of the sea, Queen Himiko (or rather Himiko) ruled Japan.
By the beginning of the Kotsuka period (250-538 AD), a center of power had formed in the fertile Plain, and around 400 AD, Japan was unified as Yamato Japan, with its political center in and around Yamato Province (present-day Nara Prefecture). The name of this era comes from the large tombs (古墳) built for the political leaders of that era. Yamato Japan extends from Kyushu to the Plain, but does not yet include Kanto, Tohoku and Hokkaido. The Emperor was the ruler of Yamato Japan and resided in a capital city that changed frequently. However, the Soga clan soon gained de facto political power, developing a system in which most emperors performed Shinto rituals merely as a symbol of the state.
During the Asuka period (538-710), the influence from the mainland was greatly strengthened due to friendly relations with the Baekje Kingdom (or Baekje Kingdom) on the Korean Peninsula. Buddhism was introduced to Japan in 538 or 552 CE and was promoted by the ruling class. It is said that Prince Saintete played a particularly important role in promoting Chinese thought. He also wrote the Seventeen Articles of the Constitution, on the principles of morality and politics. The theories of Confucianism and Taoism, as well as the Chinese writing system, were also introduced to Japan during that period. In 645, Nakatomi Kazuzu inaugurated the Fujiwara clan, which lasted until the rise of the samurai class in the 11th century.
In the same year, the Dahua Reform was realized: according to the Chinese model, a new ** and administrative system was established. All the land is owned by the state, and then it is distributed equally among the peasants according to the population. The purpose of these reforms was to strengthen the power of the local nobility and reduce the influence of the local nobility. In 710, Heijo-kyo became the capital of Japan, marking the beginning of the Heian period. The Heian period was the longest in Japanese history, lasting nearly four centuries until 1185. During this era, Japan's culture, art, literature, and religion were all at a high level, but they were also accompanied by political decline and social turmoil.
So, where did the people of the ancient mound era come from? How much do they contribute genetically? According to the latest research, the people of the Kotsuka period were made up of Yayoi and another group that migrated from the Korean Peninsula. This group is known as the ancient mound component because they are related to the culture of the ancient mound era. The people of the ancient mound may have come from the southern or southwestern part of the Korean Peninsula and had close ties with the Baekje Kingdom. They probably arrived in Japan in the 3rd or 4th century AD, bringing with them more advanced agricultural techniques, more complex social structures, and greater political organization.
They may have been the founders of Yamato Japan and the ancestors of the emperor. The people of the ancient mound mixed with the Yayoi people to form the main ethnic group of Japan, the Yamato nation. About 30% of the genetic contribution of the people of the Furuzo component is Japanese, and about 60% of the genetic contribution of the people of the Yayo component is about 60% of the genetic contribution of the Japanese people. The genetic contribution of the people of the Jomon component is about 10% of the Japanese people, but among the Ainu people of Hokkaido, the proportion of the Jomon component is as high as 70%. Among the Ryukyuan people in the Ryukyu Islands, the proportion of Jomon components is also high, accounting for about 40%. These data show that the ancestors of the Japanese are plural, not singular.