The first human inhabitants of the 

Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric

times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by
the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inventions were introduced from Asia. During
this period, the first known written reference to Japan was recorded in the Chinese Book of Han in
the first century AD.
Around the 3rd century BC, the Yayoi people from the continent immigrated to the Japanese
archipelago and introduced iron technology and agricultural civilization. [1] Because they had an
agricultural civilization, the population of the Yayoi began to grow rapidly and ultimately
overwhelmed the Jōmon people, natives of the Japanese archipelago who were hunter-gatherers.
[2]
 Between the fourth to ninth century, Japan's many kingdoms and tribes gradually came to be
unified under a centralized government, nominally controlled by the Emperor of Japan. The imperial
dynasty established at this time continues to this day, albeit in an almost entirely ceremonial role. In
794, a new imperial capital was established at Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto), marking the beginning of
the Heian period, which lasted until 1185. The Heian period is considered a golden age of
classical Japanese culture. Japanese religious life from this time and onwards was a mix of
native Shinto practices and Buddhism.
Over the following centuries, the power of the imperial house decreased, passing first to great clans
of civilian aristocrats – most notably the Fujiwara – and then to the military clans and their armies
of samurai. The Minamoto clan under Minamoto no Yoritomo emerged victorious from the Genpei
War of 1180–85, defeating their rival military clan, the Taira. After seizing power, Yoritomo set up his
capital in Kamakura and took the title of shōgun. In 1274 and 1281, the Kamakura
shogunate withstood two Mongol invasions, but in 1333 it was toppled by a rival claimant to the
shogunate, ushering in the Muromachi period. During this period, regional warlords
called daimyō grew in power at the expense of the shōgun. Eventually, Japan descended into a
period of civil war. Over the course of the late 16th century, Japan was reunified under the
leadership of the prominent daimyō Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After
Toyotomi's death in 1598, Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power and was appointed shōgun by the
emperor. The Tokugawa shogunate, which governed from Edo (modern Tokyo), presided over a
prosperous and peaceful era known as the Edo period (1600–1868). The Tokugawa shogunate
imposed a strict class system on Japanese society and cut off almost all contact with the outside
world.
Portugal and Japan came into contact in 1543, when the Portuguese became the first Europeans to
reach Japan by landing in the southern archipelago. They had a significant impact on Japan, even in
this initial limited interaction, introducing firearms to Japanese warfare. The American Perry
Expedition in 1853–54 more completely ended Japan's seclusion; this contributed to the fall of the
shogunate and the return of power to the emperor during the Boshin War in 1868. The new national
leadership of the following Meiji period transformed the isolated feudal island country into an
empire that closely followed Western models and became a great power. Although democracy
developed and modern civilian culture prospered during the Taishō period (1912–26), Japan's
powerful military had great autonomy and overruled Japan's civilian leaders in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Japanese military invaded Manchuria in 1931, and from 1937 the conflict escalated into
a prolonged war with China. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 led to war with the United
States and its allies. Japan's forces soon became overextended, but the military held out in spite
of Allied air attacks that inflicted severe damage on population centers.
Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, following the atomic bombings
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.
The Allies occupied Japan until 1952, during which a new constitution was enacted in 1947 that
transformed Japan into the constitutional monarchy. After 1955, Japan enjoyed very high economic
growth under the governance of the Liberal Democratic Party, and became a world economic
powerhouse. Since the Lost Decade of the 1990s, Japanese economic growth has slowed.
Prehistoric and ancient Japan[edit]
Paleolithic period[edit]
Main article: Japanese Paleolithic

Japan at the Last Glacial Maximum in the Late Pleistocene about 20,000 years ago

  regions above sea level
  unvegetated
  sea
black outline indicates present-day Japan

Hunter-gatherers arrived in Japan in Paleolithic times, though little evidence of their presence

remains, as Japan's acidic soils are inhospitable to the process of fossilization. However, the
discovery of unique edge-ground axes in Japan dated to over 30,000 years ago may be evidence of
the first Homo sapiens in Japan.[3] Early humans likely arrived on Japan by sea on watercraft.
[4]
 Evidence of human habitation has been dated to 32,000 years ago in Okinawa's Yamashita
Cave[5] and up to 20,000 years ago on Ishigaki Island's Shiraho Saonetabaru Cave.[6]

Jōmon period
The Jōmon period of prehistoric Japan spans from roughly 13,000 BC [7] to about 1,000 BC.[8] Japan
was inhabited by a predominantly hunter-gatherer culture that reached a considerable degree
of sedentism and cultural complexity.[9] The name Jōmon, meaning "cord-marked", was first applied
by American scholar Edward S. Morse, who discovered shards of pottery in 1877.[10] The pottery style
characteristic of the first phases of Jōmon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the
surface of wet clay.[11] Jōmon pottery is generally accepted to be among the oldest in East Asia and
the world.[12]


 A vase from the early Jōmon period (11000–7000 BC)
 

Middle Jōmon vase (2000 BC)

 

Dogū figurine of the late Jōmon period (1000–400 BC)

Yayoi period[edit]
Main article: Yayoi period
The advent of the Yayoi people from the Asian continent brought fundamental transformations to the
Japanese archipelago, compressing the millennial achievements of the Neolithic Revolution into a
relatively short span of centuries, particularly with the development of rice cultivation[13] and
metallurgy. The onset of this wave of changes was, until recently, thought to have begun around 400
BCE.[14] Radio-carbon evidence now suggests the new phase started some 500 years earlier,
between 1,000 and 800 BCE.[15][16] Radiating out from northern Kyūshū, the Yayoi, endowed with
bronze and iron weapons and tools initially imported from China and the Korean peninsula, gradually
supplanted the Jōmon.[17] They also introduced weaving and silk production, [18] new woodworking
methods,[15] glassmaking technology,[15] and new architectural styles.[19] The expansion of the Yayoi
appears to have brought about a fusion with the indigenous Jōmon, resulting in a small admixture
genetically.[20]
A Yayoi period bronze bell (dōtaku) of the 3rd century CE

The Yayoi technologies originated on the Asian mainland. There is debate among scholars as to
what extent their spread
accomplished by means of migration or simply a diffusion of ideas, or a combination of both. The
migration theory is supported by genetic and linguistic studies. [15] Historian Hanihara Kazurō has
suggested that the annual immigrant influx from the continent range from 350 to 3,000. [21]
The population of Japan began to increase rapidly, perhaps with a 10-fold rise over the Jōmon.
Calculations of the population size have varied from 1 to 4 million by the end of the Yayoi. [22] Skeletal
remains from the late Jōmon period reveal a deterioration in already poor standards of health and
nutrition, in contrast to Yayoi archaeological sites where there are large structures suggestive of
grain storehouses. This change was accompanied by an increase in both the stratification of society
and tribal warfare, indicated by segregated gravesites and military fortifications. [15]
During the Yayoi period, the Yayoi tribes gradually coalesced into a number of kingdoms. The
earliest written work of history to mention Japan, the Book of Han completed around 82 AD, states
that Japan, referred to as Wa, was divided into one hundred kingdoms. A later Chinese work of
history, the Wei Zhi, states that by 240 AD, one powerful kingdom had gained ascendancy over the
others. According to the Wei Zhi, this kingdom was called Yamatai, though modern historians
continue to debate its location and other aspects of its depiction in the Wei Zhi. Yamatai was said to
have been ruled by the female monarch Himiko.[23]

Kofun period (c. 250–538)[edit]

Daisenryō Kofun, Osaka

During the subsequent Kofun period, Japan gradually unified under a single territory. The symbol of
the growing power of Japan's new leaders was the kofun burial mounds they constructed from
around 250 CE onwards.[24] Many were of massive scales, such as the Daisenryō Kofun, a 486 m-
long keyhole-shaped burial mound that took huge teams of laborers fifteen years to complete. It is
commonly accepted that the tomb was built for Emperor Nintoku.[25] The kofun were often surrounded
by and filled with numerous haniwa clay sculptures, often in the shape of warriors and horses.[24]
The center of the unified state was Yamato in the Kinai region of central Japan.[24] The rulers of the
Yamato state were a hereditary line of emperors who still reign as the world's longest dynasty. The
rulers of the Yamato extended their power across Japan through military conquest, but their
preferred method of expansion was to convince local leaders to accept their authority in exchange
for positions of influence in the government. [26] Many of the powerful local clans who join
Yamato state became known as the uji.[27]

Territorial extent of Yamato court during the Kofun period

These leaders sought and received formal diplomatic recognition from China, and Chinese accounts
record five successive such leaders as the Five kings of Wa. Craftsmen and scholars from China
and the Three Kingdoms of Korea played an important role in transmitting continental technologies
and administrative skills to Japan during this period. [27]
Historians agree that there was a big struggle between the Yamato federation and the Izumo
Federation centuries before written records.[28]

Classical Japan[edit]
Asuka period (538–710)[edit]

Buddhist temple of Horyu-ji is the oldest wooden structure in the world. It was commissioned by Prince
Shotoku and represents the beginning of Buddhism in Japan.

The Asuka period began as early as 538 CE with the introduction of the Buddhist religion from the
Korean kingdom of Baekje.[29] Since then, Buddhism has coexisted with Japan's native Shinto
religion, in what is today known as Shinbutsu-shūgō.[30] The period draws its name from the de
facto imperial capital, Asuka, in the Kinai region.[31]
The Buddhist Soga clan took over the government in the 580s and controlled Japan from behind the
scenes for nearly sixty years.[32] Prince Shōtoku, an advocate of Buddhism and of the Soga cause,
who was of partial Soga descent, served as regent and de facto leader of Japan from 594 to 622.
Shōtoku authored the Seventeen-article constitution, a Confucian-inspired code of conduct for
officials and citizens, and attempted to introduce a merit-based civil service called the Cap and Rank
System.[33] In 607, Shōtoku offered a subtle insult to China by opening his letter with the phrase, "The
ruler of the land of the rising sun addresses the ruler of the land of the setting sun" as seen in
the kanji characters for Japan (Nippon).[34] By 670, a variant of this expression, Nihon, established
itself as the official name of the nation, which has persisted to this day. [35]

The word Nihon written in kanji (horizontal placement of characters). The text means "Japan" in Japanese.
Prince Shōtoku was a semi-legendary regent of the Asuka period, and considered to be the first major sponsor
of Buddhism in Japan.

In 645, the Soga clan were overthrown in a coup launched by Prince Naka no Ōe and Fujiwara no

Kamatari, the founder of the Fujiwara clan.[36] Their government devised and implemented the far-
reaching Taika Reforms. The Reform began with land reform, based on Confucian ideas
and philosophies from China. It nationalized all land in Japan, to be distributed equally among
cultivators, and ordered the compilation of a household registry as the basis for a new system of
taxation.[37] The true aim of the reforms was to bring about greater centralization and to enhance the
power of the imperial court, which was also based on the governmental structure of China. Envoys
and students were dispatched to China to learn about Chinese writing, politics, art, and religion. After
the reforms, the Jinshin War of 672, a bloody conflict between Prince Ōama and his nephew Prince
Ōtomo, two rivals to the throne, became a major catalyst for further administrative reforms. [36] These
reforms culminated with the promulgation of the Taihō Code, which consolidated existing statutes
and established the structure of the central government and its subordinate local governments.
[38]
 These legal reforms created the ritsuryō state, a system of Chinese-style centralized government
that remained in place for half a millennium. [36]
The art of the Asuka period embodies the themes of Buddhist art. [39] One of the most famous works is
the Buddhist temple of Horyu-ji, commissioned by Prince Shōtoku and completed in 607 CE. It is
now the oldest wooden structure in the world.[40]

Nara period (710–794)[edit]

Main article: Nara period
The Daibutsu-den, within the complex of Tōdai-ji. This Buddhist temple was sponsored by the Imperial
Court during the Nara period.

In 710, the government constructed a grandiose new capital at Heijō-kyō (modern Nara) modeled

on Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang dynasty. During this period, the first two books
produced in Japan appeared: the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki,[41] which contain chronicles of legendary
accounts of early Japan and its creation myth, which describes the imperial line as descendants
of the gods.[42] The Man'yōshū was compiled in the latter half of the eighth century, which is widely
considered the finest collection of Japanese poetry. [43]
During this period, Japan suffered a series of natural disasters, including wildfires, droughts,
famines, and outbreaks of disease, such as a smallpox epidemic in 735–737 that killed over a
quarter of the population.[44] Emperor Shōmu (r. 724–749) feared his lack of piousness had caused
the trouble and so increased the government's promotion of Buddhism, including the construction of
the temple Tōdai-ji in 752.[45] The funds to build this temple were raised in part by the influential
Buddhist monk Gyōki, and once completed it was used by the Chinese monk Ganjin as
an ordination site.[46] Japan nevertheless entered a phase of population decline that continued well
into the following Heian period.[47] There was also a serious attempt to overthrow the Imperial house
during the middle Nara period. During the 760s, monk Dōkyō tried to establish his own dynasty by
the aid of Empress Shōtoku, but after her death in 770 he lost all his power and was exiled. The
Fujiwara clan furthermore consolidated its power.

Heian period (794–1185)[edit]

Main article: Heian period