Sea People (Japan)

The were an ancient people that immigrated to the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period (300 BC–300 AD) and are characterized by the existence of Yayoi material culture. Some argue for an earlier start of the Yayoi period, between 1000 and 800 BC, but this date is contested.

Classification

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
''Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender and Identity,''
, 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.

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.

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.

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.

Origin

There are several hypotheses about the geographic origin of the mainland Asian migrants:
* immigrants from the Southern or Central Korean peninsula
* 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 Asia

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.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.

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.

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.

Lifestyle

The Yayoi population is believed to have been heavily agricultural and shamanistic oriented, being thought to be the precursor of Shintoism, worshipping animals and spirits. Though the origins are still debated, the Yayoi group is believed to have been the people who first introduced rice farming to Japan.

Language

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.
Kazuo Miyamoto ja">:ja:宮本一夫">ja/sup> (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.

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.

Genetics

Overview

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. Genetically, the Yayoi group is often associated with the Y-Haplogroup O1b2 (SRY465, M176) ^{ja">:ja:ハプログループO1b2_(Y染色体)">ja/sup> 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. 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 with the latter bearing heavy resemblance with ancient Koreans from the Three Kingdoms period.}

Impact on modern populations

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 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">:ja:ハプログループM7a_(mtDNA)">ja/sup>. Today, modern Japanese people possess around an average of 9% (±3%) of Jōmon ancestry with the highest reaching around 12%. In comparison, Koreans possess more Yayoi ancestry than the Japanese, only carrying 6% (±3%) of Jōmon ancestry in total, sometimes going low as 3%.

Physical appearance

Early Yayoi immigrants had often wholly large and flat features, large facial height, round eye orbits, and large teeth, 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.

Sea people

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.

Language

See also

*Japanese people
*Yayoi culture

References

Archaeology of Japan
Ancient peoples of Japan

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