History Genetic study traces modern Japanese lineage to Yayoi period

A team led by Jun Ohashi, a professor of population genomics at the University of Tokyo, examined the entire genome sequence of an adult Yayoi woman whose skeletal remains were unearthed from the Doigahama archaeological site in Yamaguchi Prefecture. An analysis of the woman's remains dating back 2,300 years ago was compared with existing data on Jomon and Kofun populations. Like modern Japanese, the Yayoi woman possessed three genetic components from Jomon, East Eurasian and Northeastern Eurasian peoples. However, her genetic makeup most closely resembled that of the Kofun people, followed by present-day Japanese, ancient Koreans and modern Koreans, Ohashi said. This outcome is consistent with the traditional "dual structure" model. This asserts that the ancestral group of modern Japanese was born when immigrants with genetic attributes originating from East Eurasia and Northeastern Eurasia mixed with the native Jomon population during the Yayoi period. A more recent theory also based on genome analysis postulates that the ancestral group did not appear until the Kofun period, instead of the Yayoi period. The "triple structure" model hypothesizes that immigrants from Northeastern Eurasia and East Eurasia came to Japan separately during the Yayoi and Kofun periods, respectively. Though the theory garnered considerable attention at the time, it has since been overshadowed by new research.

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