This time, I decided to look into our ancestors, who are said to have crossed over from the mainland to the Japanese archipelago in ancient times.
Migration Routes to the Japanese Archipelago
According to various historical documents, the leading theory is that the ancestors of the Japanese people are the result of long-term intermixing between various groups who migrated from the Asian continent and southern regions. Recently, methods such as genome analysis have allowed us to understand these roots in considerable detail.
The following is a broad timeline of ancient Japanese civilizations categorized by the arrival of different groups:
- Paleolithic Period: Approx. 40,000 – 16,000 years ago (14th century BCE)
- Jomon Period: Approx. 16,000 – 3,000 years ago (1,000 BCE)
- Yayoi Period: Approx. 3,000 – 1,700 years ago (Mid-3rd century CE)
- Kofun Period: Approx. 250 CE – 538 CE
- Asuka & Nara Periods: 538 CE onwards
The earliest traces of human existence in the Japanese archipelago date back to the Paleolithic period, about 40,000 years ago. However, it seems the specifics of where these people came from and how they arrived are not yet fully understood.
Following this, human remains and sites from the Jomon period (starting around 14,000 BCE) have been discovered. The Jomon period lasted for a remarkably long time—roughly 13,000 years—until about 3,000 years ago.
With the start of the Yayoi period around the 10th century BCE (3,000 years ago), the “Yayoi people”—who brought rice-farming culture—migrated primarily from the Korean Peninsula. Consequently, the indigenous Jomon people were gradually pushed toward the northern regions (Hokkaido and Tohoku) and the southern regions (around Okinawa). These migration patterns are inferred from rapidly advancing genomic analysis and are considered highly reliable.
A Simple Question: How Did Ancient Humans Cross from Siberia?
Quite a while ago, an NHK special titled “The Japanese: A Long Journey” was broadcast. In the first episode, “Mammoth Hunters: The Journey from Siberia,” it was revealed that mitochondrial DNA from human bones excavated at the Nakazuma Shell Mound in Toride City, Ibaraki Prefecture, was nearly identical to that of the Buryat people living in Siberia.
It is said that at the end of the Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago, these Siberian people crossed on foot from the mainland to Sakhalin, and then to Hokkaido, while hunting mammoths for food.
While watching this program, a simple question occurred to me: even during an Ice Age, would a 5-degree drop in average temperature really be enough to freeze a strait over 100 meters deep thick enough for humans and large beasts to cross? While the Mamiya Strait (between Sakhalin and the mainland) is relatively shallow, others like the Soya and Tsugaru Straits are…
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