Yayoi people#Origin

The terms Yayoi and Wajin can be used interchangeably, though Wajin (倭人) refers to the people of Wa, and Wajin (和人) is also used as a name for the modern Yamato people.David Blake Willis & Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu: [https://books.google.com/books?id=G2XPcHdz5DwC&pg=PA272 Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender and Identity,] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106021946/https://books.google.com/books?id=G2XPcHdz5DwC&pg=PA272|date=6 January 2017}}, p. 272: ‘“Wajin,” which is written with Chinese characters that can also be read “Yamato no hito” (Yamato person)’.

The definition of the Yayoi people is complex: Yayoi describes both farmer-hunter-gatherers exclusively living in the Japanese archipelago and their agricultural transition. Yayoi people refers specifically to the mixed descendants of Jōmon hunter-gatherers and mainland Asian migrants, who adopted (rice) agriculture and other continental material culture.{{Cite journal |last1=Boer |first1=Elisabeth de |last2=Yang |first2=Melinda A. |last3=Kawagoe |first3=Aileen |last4=Barnes |first4=Gina L. |date=2020 |title=Japan considered from the hypothesis of farmer/language spread |journal=Evolutionary Human Sciences |language=en |volume=2 |pages=e13 |doi=10.1017/ehs.2020.7 |issn=2513-843X |pmc=10427481 |pmid=37588377 |s2cid=218926428 |quote=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.}}

Archaeological research defines the term "Yayoi people" as a general designation for migrants who arrived in the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period, originating primarily from the Korean Peninsula and southern Pacific regions. It is not used to indicate a single, specific ethnic group.{{Cite web |title=【弥生文化の伝播経路】 |url=https://adeac.jp/yukuhashi-city/text-list/d100010/ht1023201030 |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=adeac.jp}}

These migrants are believed to have gradually assimilated with the indigenous Jōmon population, who had long inhabited the archipelago, thereby contributing to the formation of the modern Japanese people.{{Cite web |title=第6回 縄文人よりずっと多様な弥生人、DNAが語る意外なルーツと影響 |url=https://natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/web/19/042300056/051400006/ |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp |language=ja}}

The influence of Yayoi cultural elements varied by region. Populations in Kyushu, Okinawa, and the Tōhoku region are thought to retain stronger Jōmon traits, whereas those in Kansai and Shikoku exhibit a greater degree of Yayoi influence.{{Cite web |date=2020-10-14 |title=地方別に見た縄文人の影響は？ 高めなのは九州・東北：朝日新聞 |url=https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASNBG3HLFNBFULBJ00P.html |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=朝日新聞 |language=ja}}

There are several hypotheses about the geographic origin of the mainland Asian migrants:

• immigrants from the Southern or Central Korean peninsula{{cite web |last1=Diamond |first1=Jared |title=In Search of Japanese Roots |url= https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/in-search-of-japanese-roots |website=Discover Magazine}}{{cite journal |last1= Watanabe |first1=Yusuke |last2=Naka |first2=Izumi |last3= Khor |first3=Seik-Soon |last4=Sawai |first4=Hiromi |last5=Hitomi |first5=Yuki |last6=Tokunaga |first6=Katsushi |last7=Ohashi |first7= Jun |title=Analysis of whole Y-chromosome sequences reveals the Japanese population history in the Jomon period |journal= Scientific Reports |date=17 June 2019 |volume=9 |issue=1 |page =8556 |doi=10.1038/s41598-019-44473-z |pmid=31209235 |pmc= 6572846 |bibcode=2019NatSR...9.8556W |issn=2045-2322}}[http://21coe.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=66 ロシア極東新石器時代研究の新展開] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826072646/http://21coe.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=66 |date= 26 August 2017 }} (in Japanese)
• immigrants from Jiangnan near the Yangtze River Delta in ancient China崎谷満『DNA・考古・言語の学際研究が示す新・日本列島史』(勉誠出版　2009年)(in Japanese)
• multiple origins from various regions of Asia, including Southeast AsiaMultiple references:{{Bulleted list|徳永勝士 (2003)「HLA と人類の移動」『Science of humanity Bensei 』(42), 4–9, 東京：勉誠出版 (in Japanese)|岡正雄『異人その他 日本民族=文化の源流と日本国家の形成』 言叢社 1979 (in Japanese)|{{Cite news |url= https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/historical-linguistics/javanese-influence-on-japanese.html |title=Javanese influence on Japanese |date=9 May 2011 |work=Languages of The World |access-date= 25 July 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180725122936/https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/historical-linguistics/javanese-influence-on-japanese.html |archive-date=25 July 2018 |url-status= live }}|鳥越憲三郎『原弥生人の渡来 』(角川書店,1982)、『倭族から日本人へ』(弘文堂 ,1985)、『古代朝鮮と倭族』(中公新書,1992)、『倭族トラジャ』(若林弘子との共著、大修館書店,1995)、『弥生文化の源流考』(若林弘子との共著、大修館書店,1998)、『古代中国と倭族』(中公新書,2000)、『中国正史倭人・倭国伝全釈』(中央公論新社,2004)|諏訪春雄編『倭族と古代日本』(雄山閣出版、1993)また諏訪春雄通信100}}

According to Alexander Vovin, the Yayoi were present in the central and southern parts of Korea before they were displaced and assimilated by arriving proto-Koreans.{{Cite journal |last=Janhunen |first=Juha |date=2010 |title= Reconstructing the Language Map of Prehistorical Northeast Asia |journal=Studia Orientalia |number=108 |pages=281–304 |quote= there are strong indications that the neighbouring Baekje state (in the southwest) was predominantly Japonic-speaking until it was linguistically Koreanized.}}Vovin, Alexander (2013). "From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean". Korean Linguistics. 15 (2): 222–240. A similar view was raised by Whitman (2012), who further noted that the Yayoi are not closely related to the proto-Koreanic speakers and that they arrived in Korea later from Manchuria around 300 BC and coexisted with proto-Japonic speakers. Both influenced each other, and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families.{{Cite journal|last= Whitman |first=John|date=1 December 2011|title=Northeast Asian Linguistic Ecology and the Advent of Rice Agriculture in Korea and Japan|journal=Rice|volume=4|issue=3|pages=149–58|doi=10.1007/s12284-011-9080-0|issn=1939-8433|doi-access=free|bibcode=2011Rice....4..149W }}

Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, suggested that immigrants from the Korean Peninsula initiated the Yayoi period in Japan. Citing research findings, he stated that Yayoi Japan likely received millions of immigrants from Korea. These immigrants, during the Yayoi transition, are believed to have overwhelmed the genetic contribution of the indigenous Jōmon people, whose population was estimated to be around 75,000 at that time.{{Cite book |last=Diamond |first=Jared |title=Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies |year=1997 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |url=https://openlibrary.org/works/OL276558W/Guns_germs_and_steel |access-date=13 December 2024}}

In recent times, through archaeological and genealogical research, Japanese scholars have largely associated the origin of the Yayoi people with the Korean peninsula and have stated their impact in terms of shared ancestry between the two modern populations.{{Cite web |last=水野 |first=文月 |date=15 October 2024 |title=弥生時代人の古代ゲノム解析から渡来人のルーツを探る |url=https://www.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/press/10527/ |access-date= |website=東京大学 大学院理学系研究科・理学部 |language=ja}}

File:Yayoi people attires.JPG

The Yayoi population is believed to have been heavily agricultural{{cite web |last=Kazuo |first=Miyamoto |date=2019 |title=The spread of rice agriculture during the Yayoi Period: From the Shandong Peninsula to the Japanese Archipelago via the Korean Peninsula |s2cid=209506890 |url=https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-spread-of-rice-agriculture-during-the-Yayoi-the-Kazuo/521ff928e1dbf04955f8719197886e4bf5fc02a7?utm_source=direct_link}} and shamanistic oriented, being thought to be the precursor of Shintoism, worshipping animals and spirits.{{Cite news |date=19 November 2020 |title=Ancient vessel depicting 'bird-costume shaman' found for 1st time in eastern Japan |url=https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20201119/p2a/00m/0na/028000c |access-date= |work=Mainichi Daily News |language=en}} Though the origins are still debated, the Yayoi group is believed to have been the people who first introduced rice farming to Japan.

The people of the Yayoi culture are regarded as the spreaders of agriculture and Japonic languages throughout the whole archipelago and had both local Jōmon hunter-gatherer and mainland Asian migrant ancestry.{{Cite journal |last1=Boer |first1=Elisabeth de |last2=Yang |first2=Melinda A. |last3=Kawagoe |first3=Aileen |last4=Barnes |first4=Gina L. |date=2020 |title=Japan considered from the hypothesis of farmer/language spread |journal=Evolutionary Human Sciences |language=en |volume=2 |pages=e13 |doi=10.1017/ehs.2020.7 |issn=2513-843X |pmc=10427481 |pmid=37588377 |s2cid=218926428}}

Kazuo Miyamoto ^[ja] (宮本 一夫), a renowned linguist and emeritus professor at Kyushu University posited that the Yayoi immigrants were related to the Mumun population of ancient Korea and that they introduced proto-Japonic languages when they entered the archipelago.{{Cite journal |last=Miyamoto |first=Kazuo |date=6 January 2022 |title=The emergence of ‘Transeurasian’ language families in Northeast Asia as viewed from archaeological evidence |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357634119_The_emergence_of_'Transeurasian'_language_families_in_Northeast_Asia_as_viewed_from_archaeological_evidence |journal=ResearchGate |pages=}}

The remnants of Japonic speakers in Korea are often categorized under the Peninsular Japonic demographic, most likely descendants of the Mumun-Yayoi groups that stayed on the peninsula until the proto-Koreanic speakers arrived and assimilated them. According to Miyamoto, this recent proto-Koreanic group though arriving later, had similar origins with the proto-Japonic group (in southern Manchuria) and heavily influenced the central Japanese language during the following Kofun and Asuka periods. In essence, Miyamoto proposed that modern Korean language is composed mainly of proto-Koreanic with proto-Japonic (Yayoi) influence, while modern Japanese language is composed mainly of proto-Japonic (Yayoi) with proto-Koreanic influence.

{{Main|Genetic history of East Asians#Japanese people|Genetic and anthropometric studies on Japanese people}}

File:Reconstruction of Yayoi Individual.png

The Yayoi period population is inferred to have been culturally close to the pre-Koreanic Mumun pottery period populations of the southern Korean peninsula, which may have been speakers of Peninsular Japonic languages.{{Cite journal |last=Whitman |first=John |date=14 December 2011 |title=Northeast Asian Linguistic Ecology and the Advent of Rice Agriculture in Korea and Japan |url=https://thericejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s12284-011-9080-0 |journal=Rice |language=en |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=149–158 |doi=10.1007/s12284-011-9080-0 |bibcode=2011Rice....4..149W |issn=1939-8433|doi-access=free }}{{Cite journal |title=Archaeological Explanation for the Diffusion Theory of the Japonic and Koreanic Language {{!}} Collections {{!}} Kyushu University Library |hdl=2324/1812319 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2324/1812319 |language=ja}} Genetically, the Yayoi group is often associated with the Y-Haplogroup O1b2 (SRY465, M176) ^[ja] which is commonly found in modern day Japanese and Korean populations. Anthropologically, it is considered to be genetically diverse and can be divided into three separate, but related groups: early-Yayoi (弥生初期), middle-Yayoi (弥生中期), and late-Yayoi (弥生後期) settlers.{{cite AV media |url=https://www.nhk-ondemand.jp/goods/G2018087565SA000/ |title=弥生人ＤＮＡで迫る日本人の起源」 |date=2018-12-23 |type=Television production |language=ja |publisher=NHK |trans-title=The origin of Japanese people approaching with Yayoi DNA |location= |time= |people= |work=:ja:サイエンスZERO}} Although the groups all share the unique O1b2 ancestry, early-Yayoi period people possessed more Jōmon ancestry whereas the late-Yayoi settlers possessed more mainland Asian ancestry{{Cite journal |last1=Nakao |first1=Hisashi |last2=Kaneda |first2=Akihiro |last3=Tamura |first3=Kohei |last4=Noshita |first4=Koji |last5=Nakagawa |first5=Tomomi |date=2024-04-02 |title=Macro-Scale Population Patterns in the Kofun Period of the Japanese Archipelago: Quantitative Analysis of a Larger Sample of Three-Dimensional Data from Ancient Human Crania |journal=Humans |language=en |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=131–147 |doi=10.3390/humans4020008 |issn=2673-9461 |doi-access=free}} with the latter bearing heavy resemblance with ancient Koreans from the Three Kingdoms period.{{Cite journal |last1=Gelabert |first1=Pere |last2=Blazyte |first2=Asta |last3=Chang |first3=Yongjoon |last4=Fernandes |first4=Daniel M. |last5=Jeon |first5=Sungwon |last6=Hong |first6=Jin Geun |last7=Yoon |first7=Jiyeon |last8=Ko |first8=Youngmin |last9=Oberreiter |first9=Victoria |last10=Cheronet |first10=Olivia |last11=Özdoğan |first11=Kadir T. |last12=Sawyer |first12=Susanna |last13=Yang |first13=Songhyok |last14=Greytak |first14=Ellen McRae |last15=Choi |first15=Hansol |date=2022-08-08 |title=Northeastern Asian and Jomon-related genetic structure in the Three Kingdoms period of Gimhae, Korea |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982222009162 |journal=Current Biology |volume=32 |issue=15 |pages=3232–3244.e6 |bibcode=2022CBio...32E3232G |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.004 |issn=0960-9822 |pmid=35732180}}

Genetically, the Yayoi people (especially the late-Yayoi settlers) are believed to be a major component of the genetic makeup for the modern Japanese people{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1j7w3eBrBs |title=【9割は「外来種」日本人のDNA】縄文人と弥生人は違う種だった？/人類は1万年前よりバカになっている？/沖縄3割･アイヌ7割「日本人の二重構造モデル」/国立科学博物館館長･分子人類学者篠田謙一氏に聞く |date=2024-12-25 |last=プレジデント 公式チャンネル |access-date= |via=YouTube}} and are believed to be the contributing factor for the diminishment of the previously dominant Jōmon ancestry, commonly associated with the mtDNA Haplogroup M7a ^[ja]. Today, modern Japanese people possess around an average of 9% (±3%) of Jōmon ancestry with the highest reaching around 12%.{{Cite web |date=2017-12-15 |title=「縄文人」は独自進化したアジアの特異集団だった！ : 深読み |url=https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/fukayomi/20171214-OYT8T50003/ |access-date=2019-02-21 |website=読売新聞オンライン |language=ja}} In comparison, Koreans possess more Yayoi ancestry than the Japanese, only carrying 6% (±3%) of Jōmon ancestry in total, sometimes going low as 3%.{{Cite journal |last1=Gelabert |first1=Pere |last2=Blazyte |first2=Asta |last3=Chang |first3=Yongjoon |last4=Fernandes |first4=Daniel M. |last5=Jeon |first5=Sungwon |last6=Hong |first6=Jin Geun |last7=Yoon |first7=Jiyeon |last8=Ko |first8=Youngmin |last9=Oberreiter |first9=Victoria |last10=Cheronet |first10=Olivia |last11=Özdoğan |first11=Kadir T. |last12=Sawyer |first12=Susanna |last13=Yang |first13=Songhyok |last14=Greytak |first14=Ellen McRae |last15=Choi |first15=Hansol |date=8 August 2022 |title=Northeastern Asian and Jomon-related genetic structure in the Three Kingdoms period of Gimhae, Korea |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982222009162 |journal=Current Biology |volume=32 |issue=15 |pages=3232–3244.e6 |bibcode=2022CBio...32E3232G |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.004 |issn=0960-9822 |pmid=35732180}}

Early Yayoi immigrants had often wholly large and flat features, large facial height, round eye orbits, and large teeth,{{Cite journal |last1=Miyazato |first1=Eri |last2=Yamaguchi |first2=Kyoko |last3=Fukase |first3=Hitoshi |last4=Ishida |first4=Hajime |display-authors=3 |date=2014 |title=Comparative analysis of facial morphology between Okinawa Islanders and mainland Japanese using three-dimensional images |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajhb.22560?saml_referrer |journal=American Journal of Human Biology |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=538–548 |doi=10.1002/ajhb.22560 |via=Wiley Online Library}} while other early Yayoi specimens, such as those from the Shinmachi Dolmen Cluster displayed features closer to the earlier Jōmon people, such as a shorter face, short stature, and Jōmon-style tooth extraction. One Yayoi specimen reconstructed in 2025 displayed transitional features, retaining the characteristics of a Jōmon person, but also having other characteristics such as less prominent cheekbones and a longer face.{{Cite web |date=23 February 2025 |title=「のっぺり顔」ではない弥生人 九州北部で発掘された人骨から復元：朝日新聞 |url=https://www.asahi.com/articles/AST2P2162T2PTIPE00QM.html |access-date=15 March 2025 |website=朝日新聞 |language=ja}}{{cite book |last1=Isomura |first1=Yukio |title=(国指定史跡事典) National Historic Site Encyclopedia |last2=Sakai |first2=Hideya |date=2012 |publisher=学生社 |isbn=978-4311750403}}{{in lang|ja}}

Some historians call the Yayoi people the "Sea people (海人族/Kaijinzoku or Amazoku, 海神族/Watatsumizoku)," postulating that they migrated to Japan via the sea from elsewhere. This idea began with finding Kara-styled bronzewares and shipwreck remains on the coasts of the Korean peninsula,澤田洋太郎『日本語形成の謎に迫る』（新泉社、1999年） prompting some historians to suggest that there was a group of seafaring people who entered Japan via Korea from the seas during the Yayoi period.

Multiple theories about their geographic origin exist, including the Korean peninsula, Southeast Asia,次田真幸『古事記 （上） 全訳注』講談社学術文庫 38刷2001年（初版 1977年）ISBN 4-06-158207-0 p.192 and South China. However, the theory of the Sea people is deemed merely hypothetical due to lack of evidence, and support for it has diminished over the years in favor of more grounded descriptions in terms of the Yayoi people.

{{Main|Classification of the Japonic languages}}

• Japanese people
• Yayoi culture

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