Estimation of the Number of Early Migrants to Japan: A Simulative Study

Abstract

The number of migrants to Japan during the period of 1,000 years from the Aeneolithic Yayoi to early historic ages (ca. 300 B. C. to ca. 700 A. D.) were estimated by means of 2 models of simulation.One is the population growth model and the other the morphological change model. Both models provide almost the same estimates which suggest the number of the migrants might have been much greater than was expected.The total number of migrants from the Asian Continent is estimated to be more than a million by the 7th century and the proportion of the populations of native Jomon and migrant lineages was supposed to be roughly 1:9 or 2:8 in the protohistoric Kof un and early historic ages, at least in west Japan.Although the models applied in the present study are still immature, the results obtained seem to represent considerable significance for further analyses on the formation processes of the Japanese population.

A Microevolutional History of the Japanese People from a Dental Characteristics Perspective.

“…The present dental study more definitely supports the immigration theory of Kanaseki (1976) than the previous craniometrical studies do. Hanihara, K. (1987) suggested recently that the number of immigrants from the Asian Continent during the Yayoi and Kofun periods must have been much greater than is implied by the immigration theory. His simulation study suggested that the genetic contribution of immigrants may have been as strong as 70% to 90% of the entire Japanese.…”

Craniofacial Features of Southeast Asians and Jomonese: A Reconsideration of Their Microevolution Since the Late Pleistocene.

“…On the basis of the recent findings for the population history of the Japanese, the samples from the Nansei Island chain are referred to as Jomonese lineages in the present study (Hanihara, K., 1985(Hanihara, K., , 1987(Hanihara, K., , 1991Kozintsev, 1990;Hanihara, T., 1989Hanihara, T., , 1990aHanihara, T., , b, 1991aHanihara, T., , b, 1992a. Table 3 shows three (length-breadth, length-height, and breadth-height) indices of neurocranial part.…”

Craniometric divergence history of the Japanese populations

“…The existence of successive immigrants after the Yayoi period (Hanihara K., 1987) and/or a higher growth rate of the Yayoi immigrant group (Nakahashi and Iizuka, 1998) might have resulted in this phenomenon. When only the Jomon, Yayoi, and modern main-island Japanese are considered, the simple "dual-structure model" (Hanihara K., 1991) adequately explains Japanese population history.…”