Basics about the Japanese people

13 min readSep 12, 2020

No, not exactly. The Japanese people are predominantly descendants of the ancient Yayoi people, while Koreans themselves formed from Siberians and local assimilated Yayoi (Peninsular Japonic).

Today, we are undoubtedly closely related (besides that we are East Asians), but it is more complicated than it seems.

The ancient Yayoi people, also known as “Wajin”, originated in ancient southern or eastern China and migrated up north into the Korean Peninsula in about 1500 BC. (Below more about the genetics.)

The ancient Mumun culture in the Korean peninsula as well as the Yayoi culture in Japan had Japonic speaking people. The Mumun/Yayoi culture originated in the Peninsula and has thus several distinct elements not found among other Yangtzean cultures. Nevertheless, rice-cultivation, and agriculture generally, played an important part.

Later, proto-Koreanic tribes started migrating into the Peninsula from Manchuria, interacting with Japonic rice-agriculturalists and later assimilating them. It is suggested that vocabulary related to rice was borrowed from Japonic into Koreanic. The Japonic languages which were spoken in the Korean Peninsula are known as Peninsular Japonic. It is suggested that Baekje (and the Gaya confederation) was still Japonic speaking until it was conquered by proto-Koreans from Goguryeo.

This event caused the large scale Yayoi migration into Japan. The Yayoi displaced the outnumbered Jōmon tribes.

For this see as example:

The terms Yayoi and Wajin can be used interchangeably. “Wajin” (和人) is also the ancient Chinese name for the Yamato people (Yamatai).

There are two main theories about the origin of the Yayoi people:

The most popular theory is that they were the people who brought wet rice cultivation to Japan from the Korean peninsula and Jiangnan, near the Yangtze River Delta in ancient China. This is supported by genetic and archeological researches and bones found in modern southeastern China.

→ Proto-Japonic Yayoi migrated from Yangtze area to the Korean Peninsula 1500BC. There they developed the Mumun/Yayoi culture. They also formed tribal states (later known as “Jin state”) and the succeeding Samhan. After Proto-Koreans started expanding, the Yayoi started their expansion into Japan, replacing the Jōmon tribals. According to several historians, the Yayoi originated in the today Yunnan province in southern China. Suwa Haruo considered Wa-zoku (Wajin) to be part of the diverse Baiyue confederation (百越) along the Yangtze.

The other theory is that Yayoi originated near the Liaoning area and got there into contact with northern Asian languages and people. There they adopted certain vocabulary related to spindle waving (which are also found in Koreanic and Tungusic). (The areal family Altaic, recently called Transeurasian, is because of language contact and long-term contact in this area.)

Both theories are compatible.

The Japonic Yayoi/Mumun were present on large parts of the Korean Peninsula before they were displaced and assimilated by arriving proto-Koreans.

Japonic and Koreanic are unrelated and are more different in their proto form than today.

There are only fewer than a dozen possible cognates, which may have been borrowed by Korean from Peninsular Japonic. Proposed cognates (Francis-Ratte 2016) turned out to be loanwords. Transeurasian theory (Robbeets) and her Japano-Koreanic cluster was dismissed by most linguists and recently criticized by two studies (Yurayong 2020 and Szeto 2020) as well as Kim et al. 2020 (rejecting Robbeets main part, the millet agriculture spread and hypothetical spindle waving vocabulary) and pointing out many inconsistencies. → Altaic/Transeurasian proposal is generally rejected and no new evidence was presented by the supporters.

Here a recreation of Old-Japanese sound:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vZPHhRHVUco&t=79s

Proto-Japonic is noted for many similarities to SEA languages, especially Austronesian languages. There are even several theories which try to link Japanese to Austronesian, but it remains controversial.

There is typological evidence that Proto-Japonic may have been a monosyllabic, SVO syntax and isolating language. These characteristics are common among Kra-Dai and Austronesian languages.

Holmer 2010 notes that the evidence for a genealogical relation between Japanese and Austronesian should not be ignored. He further states that the evidence is stronger than evidence for other proposals such as Korean or Altaic.

Yoshizu Itabashi (2011) shows that similarities in morphology, phonology and basic vocabulary point towards “a strong genealogical connection between Japanese and Austronesian”. He further states that:

Finally, it is worth noting that Japanese and Austronesian have a common variety of prefixes, which are treated as morphology and syntax as opposed to phonology, and which are normally not borrowed, as well as the regular phonological correspondences and much common basic vocabulary.

Similarly, Paul K. Benedict suggested a genetic relation between Japanese and Kra-Dai within the Austro-Tai languages, which include Kra-Dai and Austronesian.

Vovin (2014) says that Benedict’s idea of a genealogical relation between Japanese and Kra-Dai should not be rejected out of hand, but he considers the relationship between them not to be genetic, but rather a contact one. According to him, this contact must be quite old and quite intense, as the borrowed words belong partially to a very basic vocabulary. He further says that this evidence refutes any genetic relations between Japanese and the putative Altaic.

→ Japonic may have been in contact with Kra-Dai, which supports the original homeland of proto-Japonic in southern China.

A short summary of proposed cognates between Kra-Dai and Japonic:

There were even some proposals which also links Koreanic with Southeast Asian languages too (such as Austronesian). This was supported by Sohn Ho-Min or Kim Nam-Kil.

A Bayesian linguistic analysis (Jaeger 2015) strangely links Japonic with Austroasiatic languages such as Vietnamese and Khmer. Althought this does not prove a genealogical relation to Austroasiatic, it is in support of the known evidence and for the location of the original homeland of proto-Japonic in southern or eastern China.

Elmer 2019 summarized that the most likely homeland of proto-Japonic was somewhere in southern or eastern China. A genealogical relation to local languages such as Austronesian is possible, but lacks yet conclusive evidence.

The general consensus among linguists is that Japonic is one of the primary language families of the world and not directly related to another language family.

Here a example for the diverse branches of the Austronesian languages on Taiwan. The Ami language: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1CjfVLbkft0

Taiwanese Austronesian languages are suggested to be closer to the proto-Austronesian and mainland Austronesian languages.

Ainu is not related to Japonic. Ainu shares typological similarities with Altaic and Siberian languages and even with Indo-European languages, but is a language isolate. More recently, some linguists started supporting a connection to some Native American languages.

Peninsular Japonic (Mumun/Yayoi)

According to several historians and linguists, such as Ahn, Lee, Whitman, Janhunen, Vovin, Unger, Bellwood, and Hasegawa, Japonic languages were spoken in parts of the Korean Peninsula before they were replaced by Koreanic speakers. Whitman (2012) suggests that the proto-Koreans arrived in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula at around 300 BC and coexist with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (and later slowly assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families.

Japonic was brought to the Japanese archipelago by the Yayoi people already around 950 BC, during the later Jōmon period, but the massive migration of the Yayoi happened after the arrival of proto-Koreans.

There is also evidence that the early Koreans borrowed words for rice cultivation from Peninsular Japonic. The middle Korean word psʌr (rice) is likely loaned from Peninsular Japonic *wasar.

Some evidence for now-extinct Japonic languages in the central and southern parts of the Korean peninsula:

Chapter 37 of the Samguk sagi (compiled in 1145) contains a list of pronunciations and meanings of placenames in the former kingdom of Goguryeo. As the pronunciations are given using Chinese characters, they are difficult to interpret, but several of those from central Korea, in the area south of the Han River captured from Baekje in the 5th century, seem to correspond to Japonic words but not Korean ones.
The Silla placenames, listed in Chapter 34 of the Samguk sagi, are not glossed, but many of them can be explained as Japonic words.
A word, explicitly attributed to the language of the Gaya confederacy, in Chapter 44 of the Samguk sagi, is a word for ‘gate’ and appears in a similar form to the Old Japanese word to2, with the same meaning, but is absent in Koreanic.
The original name of the kingdom of Tamna on Jeju Island, tammura, may have a Japonic etymology: tani mura ‘valley settlement’ or tami mura ‘people’s settlement’.

Japonic-speaking Baekje

According to some linguists and historians, Baekje was still predominantly Japonic-speaking until proto-Koreans from Goguryeo or Buyeo conquered Baekje and created a Koreanic-speaking ruler class over a Japonic-speaking commoner class which was slowly koreanized. This is in accordance to the many Japonic topographical names in Baekje area. Later, Baekje spoke a Koreanic language.

Additionally, Baekje had close political ties to Japan (Wa/Yamato). According to the Korean chronicle Samguk Sagi as well as the Japanese Nihon Shoki, but also Chinese chronics, Baekje sent some princes to the Japanese court as hostages.

Baekje was called Kudara in Japan.

Baekje also requested Japanese help after its downfall through Goguryeo forces. Japan sended military troops to Korea to aid Baekje. But after Baekjes fall, the royal Baekje family escaped from Korea to Japan and was welcomed. Thus it is likely that they still saw themselves as related people (Peninsular Japonic and Insular Japonic).

General Abe no Hirafu with 20,000 troops and 1,000 ships started a mission to revive Baekje with Buyeo Pung (known in Japanese as Hōshō), a son of Uija of Baekje who had been an emissary to Japan. Around August 661, 10,000 soldiers and 170 ships, led by Abe no Hirafu, arrived. Additional Japanese reinforcement, including 27,000 soldiers led by Kamitsukeno no Kimi Wakako (上毛野君稚子) and 10,000 soldiers led by Iohara no Kimi (廬原君) also arrived at Baekje in 662. This attempt, however, failed at the Battle of Baekgang.

The Japanese army retreated to Japan with the former royal family members, which were initially treated as “foreign guests” (蕃客) and were not incorporated into the political system of Japan. They adopted the name Kudara no Konikishi, also called the Kudara clan.

According to Juha Janhunen, while it is well attested that Baekje was Japonic speaking, there is also evidence that Japonic languages were present in early Goguryeo and Silla. He says that the dynastical language of Goguryeo may have been a Japonic languages at first until it was replaced by Koreanic. Baekje was until its conquest predominantly Japonic speaking. Others came to similar conclusions, but some doubt that Japonic was spoken by the Goguryeo elite and instead suggest this was from loanwords adopted from Japonic Baekje.

Name, etymology

The term Yamato can be traced back to Old-Japanese. Yamatai-koku or Yamato-koku (邪馬台国) (c. 1st century — c. 3rd century) is the name of an ancient country in Wa (Japan) during the late Yayoi period (c. BC 300 — c. 300 AD).

Modern Japanese Yamato (大和) descends from Old-Japanese Yamatö or Yamato2. It is the ethnic name for ancient Japanese.

Language

The Yayoi spoke a form of proto-Japonic language. The Peninsula Japonic died out and was probably assimilated into Korean. Insular Japonic evolved into Japanese and Ryukyuan.

The Yamato language, known as standard Japanese and its dialects, is the only official language of Japan.

In contrast, the Ainu language is linked to the ancient Jōmon languages. Possibly linked to some Native American languages.

Genetics

Modern Japanese have primarily Yayoi genome. Most recent estimations say that about 90% is of Yayoi ancestry, and the Jōmon ancestry is at 10% for average Japanese.

Recent studies have revealed that Jomon people are considerably genetically different from any other population, including modern-day Japanese.
— Takahashi et al. 2019; Adachi and Nara 2018

A more recent genetic study by Gakuhari et al. 2020 estimates only 3,3% Jōmon ancestry in average Japanese people.

Jōmon people originated from Paleolithic Central Asia more than 56,000 years ago. They used the northern route through Siberia via the Altai mountain to Japan and eastern Siberia.

Jōmon people were found to be genetically unique and not closely related to any other population. Strangely they are genetically distinct from Basal-Asians and seem to be a distinct population wave which used the northern route as opposed to the southern route. They are not closely related to ancient Asian samples such as Tianyuan or Hoabhinians. (Boer et al. 2020)

It was also found they share some genome with Arctic population of Eurasia.

The Ainu share about 75% ancestry from the Jōmon and can be described as closest people today.

The Jōmon share relatively most genome with Paleolithic Siberians, as well as with modern people in Japan and various groups around the Sea of Okhotsk.

Yayoi:

It is estimated that Yayoi people mainly belonged to Haplogroup O-M176 (O1b2 formerly O2b2), Haplogroup O-M122 (formerly O3 now O2) and Haplogroup O-M119 (formerly O1 now O1a), which are typical for East- and Southeast-Asians.

Mitsuru Sakitani suggests that haplogroup O1b2, which is common in today Koreans, Japanese and some Manchu, and O1b1, which is most common in various Southeast Asians, are one of the carriers of the ancient Yangtze civilization. As the Yangtze civilization declined several tribes crossed westward and northerly, to the Shandong peninsula, the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago.

Insular Japonic:

Peninsular Japonic (today Korean):

We see Yayoi component influences still exist in Koreans. O1b is sometimes referred to as the Yangtzean lineage. O1b1 moved south and O1b2 moved north during very ancient times.

Koreans have historical writings about the formation of Koreans through the marriage of two clans (the Yayoi and the Siberians). Tiger and Bear.

Interesting: Genome Research Finds Roots of Korean Ancestry in Vietnam

It is concluded that Koreans fromed from a Taiwanese/Vietnamese-linked group and Siberian-linked group.

Similarly, in March 2020, a genetic study by Jungeun Kim et al. found that modern Koreans formed from a southern Chinese/Southeast Asian component and a Siberian component, which are both also closely related to each other.

Ancient genome comparisons revealed that the genetic makeup of Koreans can be best described as an admixture of the Neolithic Devil’s Gate genome in Russia and the Iron Age Vat Komnou in Southeast Asia (Cambodia).

About 70% of Korean genome is of southern origin and can be linked to southern Chinese and Southeast Asians, while the 30% can be linked to Northeast Asians and Siberians. See: Origin and Composition of Korean Ethnicity Analyzed by Ancient and Present-Day Genome Sequences

This is in support with previous studies which links the Yayoi to southern China.

Anyway, Koreans and Japanese are very closely related and genetically indistinguishable. Additionally, all East Asian, Southeast Asian, Siberian, as well as Central Asian are closely related to each other genetically. Even American Natives. It is called the Mongoloid race. Aka East-Eurasian or East Asian-related populations.

Full genome analyses reveals the distribution of Mongoloid/East-Eurasian populations.

A multiregional origin for modern humans was recently supported by studies from Yuan et al. 2019, Chen et al. 2020, Huang (various studies, most recently also in 2020). They concluded that there are three human races, Eastern-Eurasians (Mongoloids) being one of the three. They also cite and found interesting things about the MGD theory (maximum genetic diversity), neutral and non-neutral DNA and evolution as well as convergent evolution of autosomes and SNPs and “junk-DNA”. Huang notes that the three groups share probably less than 12% of total genome. Interesting, but more evidence is surely needed.

Summary:

Japanese are not descedants of modern ethnic Koreans. Japanese are descendants of the Japonic Yayoi/Mumun, which originated somewhere in southern or eastern China and than migrated into the Korean Peninsula in 1500BC (i.e. more than 3,500 years ago). Koreans formed from Peninsular Yayoi and Siberian tribes. Jōmon people got nearly completely replaced by the Japonic Yayoi and only the Ainu and some tribes in eastern Siberia retained Jōmon ancestry till today.

The Japanese royal family is not Korean. One Japanese emperor married a royal girl from Baekje, but that does not mean the royal family is Korean. This was a really common thing in Europe too. All royal families in Europa intermarried to gain political advantages. Some aristocracy is believed to have Emishi ancestry.

Additionally, several historians suggest that Baekje was Peninsular Japonic or at least multilingual between Koreanic and Peninsular Japonic. Many topographic names can be linked to Japonic but not Korean. Peninsular Japonic was get extinct and replaced by Koreanic language. It is incorrect to claim that Japanese are descendants of Koreans only because Yayoi lived in Korea. Remember that Yayoi lived there before the actual Koreans arrived. A geographical term is not a ethnic identification.

I love Korea, I consider Korea the closest to Japan. Regardless of political and historical problems, we must work together.

I hope this helps.

Basics about the Japanese people

Written by Saito Takashi

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