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The Origins of the Japanese People

by Alan Halbert

I. Introduction
Today I'm going to talk about Japanese roots no, not things you might
get in your sushi, but the origins of the people of Japan. Although the
Japanese or Nihonjin are actually one of the world's largest ethnic groups,
numbering more than 120 million, their origins are still hotly debated.
The traditional and still predominant theory about the origins of the
Japanese points to their "East Asian" or Mongolian origins via Korea, with
distant similarities to Altaic languages (Korean, Turkish, Hungarian, and
Finnish), with elements of ancient Japanese similar to Indonesian and
Austronesians.
One theory is that they share ancestors with Native American Indians,
whose ancestors migrated from Siberia 30 thousand years ago. Another
emphasizes the genetic links with the aborigines of Australia and Polynesia,
who have been traced to Madagascar in Africa, if one goes back 50,000 years.
The true origins of the Japanese are still the subject of much debate among
scholars.
Traditionally the Japanese thought of themselves as a unique race or
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ethnic group, which is not so unreasonable, since they have been relatively
isolated for nearly 2000 years. However, many scholars disagree strongly, and
point out they are not really homogeneous.
Take a look at this first picture of different Japanese. While they are all quite
recognizably "Japanese" especially to someone like me who lived there for
years, you can see a wide variety of ethnic strains some are dark-skinned,
some are fair-skinned; some are short stocky and others tall and slender; most
have little facial or body hair, but some are quite hairy; and many if not most
have what we consider classically "Asian" eyes and eyelids, while others are
much more round-eyed and "Caucasian" in appearance.
With modern genetic science tools, researchers have actually identified more
than a dozen different genetic "haplotypes" or genetic groups among the
Japanese, and just two or three of those that can claim more than 20% of the
population. Now let's look at how that can be, and where they might have all
originated.
II. Geography
There are 4 main islands that make up modern-day Japan, not counting
the Okinawa Archipelago. Geographically, Japan is one of the more isolated
island nations. Compared to England, which is just 20 miles from the
European Continent, it is a long 110 miles from the Asian Continent, the
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nearest point being the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula, to the Japan
Sea coast of northern Kyushu and southwestern Honshu, the main island of
Japan. Going back centuries, Okinawa had its own distinct culture known as
Ryukyu, and its own languages distantly related to Japanese.
At the northernmost end of Japan, the large island of Hokkaido was not
actually part of ancient Japan. The native people of Hokkaido are (or
perhaps we should say were) the Ainu, once also known as the Ezo, but they
are now almost completely extinct as a pureblooded ethnic group. Here is a
picture of an Ainu. Although they are a very distinct primarily Siberian
ethnic group with caucasian features including hair and blue eyes, what is
fascinating is that genetic and anthropological evidence points to a link
between them and the most ancient people of Japan, the Jomon. Their
language is also quite remotely related to Japanese.
During the ice ages, some however, there were actually one or two land
bridges between the Asian Continent and Japan. (Photo 3.) One connected
Sakhalin in eastern Siberia with Hokkaido, which must have been mostly a
very cold an icy passage most of the year, like the Bering Sea passage the
Native Americans used to migrate via Alaska to America; and the other
spanned at least some of the 100 miles from Korea to northern Kyushu.
III. Prehistory of the Japanese People
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Japan was settled at least 30,000 years ago by hunters who made stone
hand-axes and then spear- and arrow-points. Little is known about the
appearance or genetic make-up of these earliest people. Around 10,000 BCE,
a culture known as the Jomon people became defined by their rope-pattern
pottery, amont the oldest in the world. They were hunters, in transition to
becoming farmers. However, the Jomon were apparently not farming rice.
There is some less-than definitive evidence of links between the Jomon
and the Emishi people, another ethnic group pushed into northern Honshu in
historic times, but apparently extinct or absorbed into the Japanese population.
In about 1000 to 200 BCE, a distinct culture known as the Yayoi
emerged in Japan. These people introduced wet rice-farming, made smooth
pottery more like Chinese types, and lived primarily from Kyushu to the
central Pacific coast of Honshu, now the Kanto (or Tokyo) area of Japan.
The later Yayoi started making sculptures of horsemen and left evidence of
practicing an animistic, shamanistic religion (early Shinto). Their clay
figurines and bronze mirrors closely resemble the artifacts of early Korean
peoples such as Paekche and Silla.
Between the second and sixth centuries, giant kofun or tombs were
constructed in Japan for their emperors and empresses. These are considered
the artifacts of a distinct or evolved group, known as the Yamato people (Wa-
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jin) possibly a mixture of the Yayoi with more recent migrants from the
mainland, as well as remnants of the Jomon. Some archeologiests have found
evidence of a new wave of horse-born invaders. Described as dwarves by
Chinese accounts around 200 CE, Japan was said to have as many as 70
different kingdoms at that time.
The famous Queen Pimiko or Himiko, who lived around 280 CE is
believed to be Empress Suiko, an ancestor of the Japanese imperial family. It
seems she had close ties to Koguryo in Korea, a rival of Silla and Paek-che,
the other two Korean kingdoms. For this reason some scientists ironically
claim the Japanese imperial family is among the most pure-blooded of
"Korean" people. However, they are definitely different from modern-day
Korean of Han stock.
IV. The Japanese Language (Nihongo) and the Japanese (Nihonjin)
Japanese appears to be an "isolated" or "orphan" language, with few
clear links even to its closest relative, Korean, that could have resulted from
proximity instead of actual evolution. Even then, less than 15% of the
vocabulary is cognates. But both languages are both considered part of the
Altaic family of languages, named for proto-Altaic or the earliest forms of the
language traced to central Siberia, somewhat west of Mongolia.
Modern researchers use computer programs and sophisticated analyses
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to "date" language origins, and a recent study puts ancient Japanese at 2100
years old, which fits with the height of the Yayoi culture or early Yamato. But
the diversion from Korean dates to as far back as 8000 years, and from
Turkish and Hungarian and Finish, even earlier.
Other analyses have shown as close a relation if not closer to
Austronesian languages and the language spoken by the Blackfoot Indians of
North America. There is even a new and unlikely theory based on some
remarkable links between Hebrew and Japanese, with a book called "The
Hebrew Origins of the Japanese Language." Most of these are probably just
coincidences. However, some intriguing examples include names of important
places such as Gion and Zion (Tsiyon, another name for the Jerusalem, and a
symbol of the entire Land of Israel). Another famous "coincidence" is Moriya,
the name for the highest hill in Jerusalem and a mountain in Shikoku with a
similar legend of a father sacrificing a horned animal (a deer) instead of his
own son, like the story of Abaham and Isaac in the Akeidah. Other similarities
between Shinto festivals and imagery (tengu wearing tefillin, etc.) are truly
amazing.