“Japanese Ancestors Originally from the Korean Peninsula”

After research using information based on human genes (genomes), it has been advocated for the first time that the ancestral group of the Japanese people currently living in the mainland of Japan were travelers who went through the Korean Peninsula.

“As a result of comparing the HLA genes which exists in the human`s #6 chromosome, with the various Asian races based on recent research outcomes on genomes, we concluded that the closest groups to the natives of Japan are the Korean people and the Chosun race in China,” clarified Professor Tokunaga Katsushi in the human genetics area of the Medical Department at Tokyo University.

The summary of research will be gathered in a series of `Open Lectures`, which are scheduled to be published by Tokyo Major Publishing company in the middle of July.

Professor Tokugawa clarified that after comparing and analyzing the twelve Eastern Asian groups (Japanese, Korean, the Han race, the Manchu race, the Chosun race, Mongolians, the natives of Taiwan, and so on) based on HLA analogy, the natives of Japan are, even more than the people in Okinawa or the Ainu race in northern Hokkaido, closest to the Korean people and the Chosun race in China.

This research supports the existing theory that the ancestral group who traveled through the Korean Peninsula played a big role in the formation of the Japanese people during the Japanese Yayoi Period (300 B.C. ~ 200 A.D.).

Because research conducted up until now with the primary usage of relics, skeletons and blood type distribution were faced with limitations, this research based on the recent research result on genomes is evaluated as the most definite edition of the `Root Theory`.

Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com