Japanese - Nihonjin

Japanese: 日本人 - にほんじん

Anthropologically, they are people whose ancestors are from groups that have lived in the area from Hokkaido to the Okinawa Islands (the Nansei Islands) since the Paleolithic or Jomon period. Also, legally, they are people who have Japanese nationality. Many of them speak Japanese as their first language, and as their physical characteristics are generally yellow skin, dark brown irises, black straight hair, and Mongolian spots that appear in infancy, there is no doubt that they belong to the large Mongoloid race. However, Mongoloids are divided into several groups, and the process by which these groups mixed in the Japanese archipelago to form the present-day Japanese people is not necessarily simple. Even today, there is a considerable deviation in the physical characteristics of the Ainu, the Japanese of Honshu (including Shikoku and Kyushu), and the people of the Nansei Islands, and even among people who are lumped together as Honshu people, clear variations can be noted depending on the region and era. For these reasons, there have long been various theories about the type of people who migrated to the present-day Japanese archipelago and played a major role in forming the Japanese people, and although it is not possible to make a quick decision, the following hypothesis is currently the most likely. First, Late Paleolithic people (Classified by WW Howells as Paleo-Mongoloids) who formed the foundation of the Jomon people migrated from the Asian continent during the Würm glacial period. After the glacial period, the natural environment became more lenient and people began to live relatively stable lives. As a result, the skeletons of Jomon people throughout the Japanese archipelago became stronger and they acquired their own physical characteristics. Then, from the end of the Jomon period to the Yayoi period, Neolithic people (Neo-Mongoloids adapted to cold climates) migrated again from the Asian continent to a corner of Western Japan. In the areas where they migrated, Neolithic physical characteristics rapidly appeared, but in areas not directly affected by the immigrants, Jomon characteristics continued into the Yayoi period. After that, from the Kofun period to the Nara period, interbreeding progressed in Honshu (including Shikoku and Kyushu), and people gradually moved toward uniformity, but people in geographically isolated Hokkaido and the Ryukyu Islands retained Jomon characteristics, although their physical characteristics changed in response to cultural changes.

Source : Heibonsha Encyclopedia About MyPedia Information

Japanese:

人類学上は，旧石器時代あるいは縄文時代以来，現在の北海道〜沖縄諸島（南西諸島）に住んだ集団を祖先にもつ人々。また法律上は，日本国に国籍を有する人々。多くは日本語を母語とし，身体的特徴として一般に皮膚の色は黄色，虹彩は黒褐色，毛髪は黒色で直毛，また幼児期に蒙古斑が現れることなどから，人種としてはモンゴロイド大人種に属していることは疑いない。しかしモンゴロイドはいくつかの集団にわかれており，これらの集団が日本列島において混じり合い，現在の日本人が形成されていった過程は必ずしも単純ではない。現代においてもアイヌ，本州日本人（四国・九州を含む），南西諸島人の身体形質の間にはかなりの偏差がみられ，本州人と一括される人々においても地域や時代によって明確な変異が指摘できる。こうしたことから現在の日本列島に渡来し，日本人形成に主要な役割を果たしたのがどのような人々であったかについては古くから諸説があり，速断できないものの，以下の仮説が現在有力である。まずウルム氷期にアジア大陸から縄文人の根幹をなした後期旧石器人（W.W.ハウエルズの分類によれば古モンゴロイド）が渡来し，氷期後に自然環境が緩和されて比較的安定した生活が始まると，日本列島全域の縄文人の骨格は頑丈となり，独自の身体形質を獲得していった。やがて縄文時代終末期から弥生時代にかけて再びアジア大陸から新石器人（寒冷地適応をした新モンゴロイド）が西日本の一角に渡来する。渡来地域では急激に新石器時代人的な身体形質が生じたが，渡来民が直接及ばなかった地域では弥生時代にもなお縄文人的形質をとどめた。その後古墳時代から奈良時代にかけて本州（四国・九州を含む）においては混血が進み，徐々に均一化の方向に向かったが，地理的に隔離された北海道や南西諸島の人々は文化の変動に対応した身体形質の変化はあったものの，縄文人的特徴が残されている。

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