On the Indonesian Component in the Population History of Japan

Abstract

The article uses the evidence of physical anthropology and genetics to address the issue of Indonesian (and, more generally, Austronesian) component in the modern and ancient populations of Japan. The principal database includes frequencies of nonmetric traits in ten cranial samples from Japan dating to between the Neolithic and recent centuries. A strong intergroup correlation between three independent highly diagnostic traits suggests that the key factor in the population history of Japan was admixture between two components, i. e., the aboriginal one, associated with the Jоmon culture, and the immigrant Mongoloid component. The origin of the latter has been examined using ten models, in each of which the role of the hypothetical Mongoloid component was successively played by Mongoloid samples from other regions, also studied by the author. The best agreement with the observed data has been demonstrated by the Chinese model, whereas the Indonesian model has proved one of the worst ones. This may be due to the absence of crania from Shikoku, where M. G. Levin’s anthropometric survey has revealed a concentration of Indonesian features. The examined Yayoi cranial sample presents no such features. These findings disprove Ann Kumar’s amateurish suggestion that Yayoi people arrived from Java. Instead, they support Martine Robbeets’s idea that Austronesian elements in Japanese language and culture were introduced from southern Manchuria via Korea.