Who are the Japanese? Huge DNA discovery rewrites history
Key takeaways
- But a major genetic analysis from researchers at RIKEN's Center for Integrative Medical Sciences suggests the picture is far more complicated.
- Using whole-genome sequencing on more than 3,200 people from across Japan, the team found evidence supporting a third ancestral group tied to northeastern Asia and possibly linked to the ancient Emishi people.
- The results also revealed something else surprising: Japan's population is genetically more diverse than many researchers once assumed.
Why this matters: new research or scientific developments with potential real-world impact.
For decades, scientists believed the Japanese population largely descended from two ancient groups: the Jomon hunter-gatherers who lived in the archipelago for thousands of years, and later migrants from East Asia who brought rice farming and new technologies to Japan.
But a major genetic analysis from researchers at RIKEN's Center for Integrative Medical Sciences suggests the picture is far more complicated.
Using whole-genome sequencing on more than 3,200 people from across Japan, the team found evidence supporting a third ancestral group tied to northeastern Asia and possibly linked to the ancient Emishi people. The findings, published in Science Advances, add powerful support to the increasingly discussed "tripartite origins" theory of Japanese ancestry.