- A research team from the University of Tokyo analyzed DNA from a Yayoi-period skeleton to determine the ancestral makeup of the modern Japanese population.
- The unique DNA makeup found in the bones matches that of a people group from the Korean Peninsula mixing with native Jomon people.
- The influx of Korean Peninsula immigrants to Japan probably led to a significant culture shift on the island country.
Scientists from the University of Tokyo may have just laid to rest a long-standing debate over the ancestral origins of the modern Japanese population. By analyzing the DNA of a 2,300-year-old skeleton, the team was able to learn that Japanese ancestry is a mix of two people groups that integrated during the Yayoi period (around 300 B.C. to 300 A.D.).
This analysis was no small thing—in fact, the investigation required a full nuclear genome analysis of a skeleton found in 1952 at the Doigahama ruins in Japan. Once completed, the results suggested that “between the Yayoi and Kofun periods, the majority of immigrants to the Japanese archipelago originated primarily from the Korean Peninsula,” the research team wrote in a study published in the Journal of Human Genetics.
A full-scale understanding of Japanese ancestral history has been limited, the authors explained, largely because of a lack of access to Yayoi-period remains. But in 1952, a construction project uncovered about 300 Yayoi-era human bones at the Doigahama ruins, and the find led scholars to split in their hypotheses regarding the hearly genetic makeup of the Japanese people group. This new information led some experts to develop a dual-structure model—mixing two people groups together—of the modern Japanese genetic makeup, while others stuck to a triple-structure model.
In this new study, the team explained that a comprehensive genetic analysis of the Yayoi individual whose bones were examined (along with comparisons to people groups across both East and Northeast Asia) revealed that the bones did have three distinct genetic ancestries. But the best match for that ancestry came not from three different people groups, but from mixing the genetic composition of modern Koreans (which is itself comprised of both East and Northeast Asian ancestries) with the genetic compostion of the Jomon people.
So, the authors had their answer: the genetic composition of the modern Japanese people is a blend of the Jomon people and the modern Koreans. And those immigrants arriving from the Korean peninsula during the Yayoi period would have brought much more than just their genes—they likely also brought new technologies and perspectives, creating a cultural shift on the islands that lives on through genetic sampling.
“This study,” the authors said in a translated statement from the university, “is expected to further deepen our understanding of the formation process of the Japanese population by clarifying the main roots of the Japanese population.”
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