Book of Han

The first human inhabitants of the
Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric

times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by
the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inventions were introduced from Asia. During
this period, the first known written reference to Japan was recorded in the Chinese Book of Han in
the first century AD.
Around the 3rd century BC, the Yayoi people from the continent immigrated to the Japanese
archipelago and introduced iron technology and agricultural civilization. [1] Because they had an
agricultural civilization, the population of the Yayoi began to grow rapidly and ultimately
overwhelmed the Jōmon people, natives of the Japanese archipelago who were hunter-gatherers.
[2]
Between the fourth to ninth century, Japan's many kingdoms and tribes gradually came to be
unified under a centralized government, nominally controlled by the Emperor of Japan. The imperial
dynasty established at this time continues to this day, albeit in an almost entirely ceremonial role. In
794, a new imperial capital was established at Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto), marking the beginning of
the Heian period, which lasted until 1185. The Heian period is considered a golden age of
classical Japanese culture. Japanese religious life from this time and onwards was a mix of
native Shinto practices and Buddhism.
Over the following centuries, the power of the imperial house decreased, passing first to great clans
of civilian aristocrats – most notably the Fujiwara – and then to the military clans and their armies
of samurai. The Minamoto clan under Minamoto no Yoritomo emerged victorious from the Genpei
War of 1180–85, defeating their rival military clan, the Taira. After seizing power, Yoritomo set up his
capital in Kamakura and took the title of shōgun. In 1274 and 1281, the Kamakura
shogunate withstood two Mongol invasions, but in 1333 it was toppled by a rival claimant to the
shogunate, ushering in the Muromachi period. During this period, regional warlords
called daimyō grew in power at the expense of the shōgun. Eventually, Japan descended into a
period of civil war. Over the course of the late 16th century, Japan was reunified under the
leadership of the prominent daimyō Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After
Toyotomi's death in 1598, Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power and was appointed shōgun by the
emperor. The Tokugawa shogunate, which governed from Edo (modern Tokyo), presided over a
prosperous and peaceful era known as the Edo period (1600–1868). The Tokugawa shogunate
imposed a strict class system on Japanese society and cut off almost all contact with the outside
world.
Portugal and Japan came into contact in 1543, when the Portuguese became the first Europeans to
reach Japan by landing in the southern archipelago. They had a significant impact on Japan, even in
this initial limited interaction, introducing firearms to Japanese warfare. The American Perry
Expedition in 1853–54 more completely ended Japan's seclusion; this contributed to the fall of the
shogunate and the return of power to the emperor during the Boshin War in 1868. The new national
leadership of the following Meiji period transformed the isolated feudal island country into an
empire that closely followed Western models and became a great power. Although democracy
developed and modern civilian culture prospered during the Taishō period (1912–26), Japan's
powerful military had great autonomy and overruled Japan's civilian leaders in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Japanese military invaded Manchuria in 1931, and from 1937 the conflict escalated into
a prolonged war with China. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 led to war with the United
States and its allies. Japan's forces soon became overextended, but the military held out in spite
of Allied air attacks that inflicted severe damage on population centers.
Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, following the atomic bombings
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.
The Allies occupied Japan until 1952, during which a new constitution was enacted in 1947 that
transformed Japan into the constitutional monarchy. After 1955, Japan enjoyed very high economic
growth under the governance of the Liberal Democratic Party, and became a world economic
powerhouse. Since the Lost Decade of the 1990s, Japanese economic growth has slowed.
Prehistoric and ancient Japan[edit]
Paleolithic period[edit]
Main article: Japanese Paleolithic
Japan at the Last Glacial Maximum in the Late Pleistocene about 20,000 years ago

regions above sea level
unvegetated
sea
black outline indicates present-day Japan
Hunter-gatherers arrived in Japan in Paleolithic times, though little evidence of their presence

remains, as Japan's acidic soils are inhospitable to the process of fossilization. However, the
discovery of unique edge-ground axes in Japan dated to over 30,000 years ago may be evidence of
the first Homo sapiens in Japan.[3] Early humans likely arrived on Japan by sea on watercraft.
[4]
Evidence of human habitation has been dated to 32,000 years ago in Okinawa's Yamashita
Cave[5] and up to 20,000 years ago on Ishigaki Island's Shiraho Saonetabaru Cave.[6]
Jōmon period
The Jōmon period of prehistoric Japan spans from roughly 13,000 BC [7] to about 1,000 BC.[8] Japan
was inhabited by a predominantly hunter-gatherer culture that reached a considerable degree
of sedentism and cultural complexity.[9] The name Jōmon, meaning "cord-marked", was first applied
by American scholar Edward S. Morse, who discovered shards of pottery in 1877.[10] The pottery style
characteristic of the first phases of Jōmon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the
surface of wet clay.[11] Jōmon pottery is generally accepted to be among the oldest in East Asia and
the world.[12]

A vase from the early Jōmon period (11000–7000 BC)

Middle Jōmon vase (2000 BC)

Dogū figurine of the late Jōmon period (1000–400 BC)
Yayoi period[edit]
Main article: Yayoi period
The advent of the Yayoi people from the Asian continent brought fundamental transformations to the
Japanese archipelago, compressing the millennial achievements of the Neolithic Revolution into a
relatively short span of centuries, particularly with the development of rice cultivation[13] and
metallurgy. The onset of this wave of changes was, until recently, thought to have begun around 400
BCE.[14] Radio-carbon evidence now suggests the new phase started some 500 years earlier,
between 1,000 and 800 BCE.[15][16] Radiating out from northern Kyūshū, the Yayoi, endowed with
bronze and iron weapons and tools initially imported from China and the Korean peninsula, gradually
supplanted the Jōmon.[17] They also introduced weaving and silk production, [18] new woodworking
methods,[15] glassmaking technology,[15] and new architectural styles.[19] The expansion of the Yayoi
appears to have brought about a fusion with the indigenous Jōmon, resulting in a small admixture
genetically.[20]
A Yayoi period bronze bell (dōtaku) of the 3rd century CE
The Yayoi technologies originated on the Asian mainland. There is debate among scholars as to
what extent their spread

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The first human inhabitants of the

Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric

Japan at the Last Glacial Maximum in the Late Pleistocene about 20,000 years ago

Hunter-gatherers arrived in Japan in Paleolithic times, though little evidence of their presence

Middle Jōmon vase (2000 BC)

Dogū figurine of the late Jōmon period (1000–400 BC)

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