# Yayoi people

The Yayoi people (弥生 人, Yayoi jin) 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. 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.

## Origin

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.
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.
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
* 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. 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.

## Genetics

Two remains from the "late Yayoi" period found at the Shimomotoyama site in northern Kyushu, in the Nagasaki Prefecture, have been analyzed and displayed mixed ancestry with a majority being derived from local Jōmon hunter-gatherers (c. 60% and 95% respectively), and the remainder being of mainland Asian origin (c. 40% and 5% respectively). This may indicate that instead of being replaced, the indigenous Jōmon tribes adopted mainland Asian material culture and technologies, and absorbing an increasing number of migrant groups into their society. Two other "middle Yayoi" period specimens from the Doigahama site in the Yamaguchi Prefecture and Kuma Nishiyoda, had c. 13% and 22% Jōmon-related ancestry respectively, with the remainder ancestry being of mainland Asian origin (c. 87% and 78% respectively). These two specimens were furthermore found to be close to present-day Japanese, indicating that a Japanese-like gene pool formed as early as in the Yayoi period.
The Yayoi period population is inferred to have been culturally close to the pre-Koreanic Mumun pottery period populations of the southern Korean penisular, which may have been speakers of Peninsular Japonic languages. Genetic analyses on two ancient remains from southern Korea revealed elevated Jōmon ancestry at c. 34%, with the remainder being of the same mainland Asian migrant type as observed among Yayoi specimens in Japan. Six other Korean individuals harbored c. 7% of Jōmon-like ancestry. These results suggest the presence of a Jōmon-like population on the Korean peninsula and their significant contribution to the formation of early Japonic-speakers. It is thus suggested that the "agricultural transition in prehistoric Japan involved the process of assimilation, rather than replacement, with almost equal genetic contributions from the indigenous Jomon" and mainland Asian migrants during the Mumun/Yayoi period. During the Kofun period, the gene pool of Japanese homogenized with the amount of Jōmon ancestry decreased to around 13%–15%, while Jōmon-like ancestry on the Korean peninsula decreased to nearly 0%.

### Contribution to modern Japanese people

The Yayoi people are considered to be a major contributing strand of the modern Japanese people's DNA. Recent genetic studies on the Yayoi people suggest that they were closely related to populations from the Korean Peninsula, but occasionally also displayed high affinities to the previous Jōmon tribes.

## 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, 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, 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.