The written history of Japan begins with brief references in the 1st century AD Twenty-Four Histories, a collection of Chinese historical texts. However, archaeological evidence indicates that people were living on the islands of Japan as early as the upper paleolithic period. Following the last ice-age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese Archipelago fostered human development. The earliest-known pottery belongs to the Jōmon period.

Paleolithic

Jōmon Period

main: Jōmon period

Yayoi Period

main: Yayoi period

The start of the Yayoi period marked the influx of new practices such as weaving, rice farming, shamanism and iron and bronze-making brought from Korea or China. For example, some paleoethnobotany studies show that wet-rice cultivation began about 8000 BC in the Yangtze River Delta and spread to Japan about 1000 BC.

Japan first appeared in written records in AD 57 with the following mention in China's Book of Later Han: Across the ocean from Luoyang are the people of Wa. Formed from more than one hundred tribes, they come and pay tribute frequently. The Sanguo Zhi written in the 3rd century noted the country was the unification of some 30 small tribes or states and ruled by a shaman queen named Himiko of Yamataikoku.

During the Han Dynasty and Wei Dynasty, Chinese travelers to Kyūshū recorded its inhabitants and claimed that they were the descendants of the Grand Count (Tàibó) of the Wu. The inhabitants also show traits of the pre-sinicized Wu people with tattooing, teeth-pulling and baby-carrying. The Sanguo Zhi records the physical descriptions which are similar to ones on Haniwa statues, such men with braided hair, tattooing and women wearing large, single-piece clothing.

The Yoshinogari site is the most famous archaeological site in the Yayoi period and reveals a large, continuously inhabited settlement in Kyūshū for several hundreds of years. Excavation has shown the most ancient parts to be around 400 BC. Among the artifacts are iron and bronze objects, including those from China. It appears the inhabitants had frequent communication with the mainland and trade relations. Today some reconstructed buildings stand in the park on the archaeological site.

Yamato Period

main: Yamato period

The Yamato polity was the main ruling power in Japan from the middle of the 3rd century until 710. The Kofun period (mid 3rd century – mid 6th century), is defined by the construction of many keyhole-shaped tumuli. At the beginning of the Asuka period (mid 6th century – 710), the capital was moved to Asuka, the southernmost part of Nara Basin. The main difference between the Yayoi period and the Kofun-Asuka periods is the development from a sedentary and agricultural culture to a more advanced and militaristic culture due to influences from China via the Korean peninsula. This was replaced by Tang Dynasty Chinese influences during the Nara period which introduced centralized imperial government, new aesthetics and new religious ideas instead of the military advances of the Yamato era.