Foreigners in Japan: A Historical Perspective

By Gopal Kshetry

Japan began to fascinate the West after the account of Marco Polos sojourn in China. This set off an interest in the oriental world. The Portuguese, being the first, arrived in Japan in 1543 which was followed by others. The experience Japan had with Europeans put upon itself isolation for about 200 years. After the forceful opening by Mathew Perry in 1853, many Westerners again began to arrive in Japan. Later during the 1980s, there was an influx of migrant workers which become a hot topic of debate.
The book throws much light onto the historical background as well as the events that lead up to the present state of affairs in relation to issues of discrimination, crimes and problems related to foreigners.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 20, 2008
• ISBN: 9781469102443

Gopal Kshetry

Gopal Kshetry, who graduated his master degree in economics from an American University, is an avid reader of Japanese history, and an observer of Japanese society, migrant workers and crime related to foreigners in Japan. He has lived in several countries, including Japan, and writes as a freelancer on current affairs of social and economic issues.

Book preview

Copyright © 2008 by Gopal Kshetry.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

35882

Contents

Prologue

Major Historical Periods of Japan

Japanese Terminology

Glossary of Abbreviations

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Notes

Bibliography

To My Mother Who Endeavored Her Best to Nurture Me.

Prologue

During the twentieth century, Japan mesmerized the whole world by its extraordinary technological and economic advancement compared with its geographical size and natural resources. It merely occupies 0.3 percent of the world’s land mass. It is quite small in area compared to China or the United States, which are both about twenty-five times bigger than Japan. If Japan were part of America, it would be the fifth largest state, following Alaska, Texas, California, and Montana. This small country shared 2.1 percent of the world’s population in 2000. Its population density was 340 per square kilometer in 1999 ranking the fourth highest country in the world following Bangladesh, South Korea, and the Netherlands. It has virtually no important physical resources to support its high-density population. It imports large quantities of important natural resources such as food, petroleum, coal, iron ore and other minerals, and energy resources. Despite these shortcomings and handicaps, Japan has succeeded in maintaining a lead over many other nations.

After the collapse of the feudalistic structure of the Tokugawa rule in 1868, Japan achieved extraordinary economic growth and development. No nation in the world has risen so swiftly as Japan in technological advancement and economic development. The far-reaching and important changes took place in the political, social, and economic spheres of Japan after the Meiji restoration with the help of Western knowledge, ideas, and technologies. Japan has been transformed into an affluent and advanced nation from an agrarian, feudalistic, less developed, and poor country. It succeeded in becoming the second biggest industrial nation after the United States in a century in 1968 among the democratic nations, excluding the USSR. At the same time, Japan achieved great prominence in economic affairs and global politics. This miraculous technological and economic advancement has attracted tremendous world attention towards Japan. As a result, many foreigners have begun to pour into Japan and have settled down legally and illegally, which has become a serious and sensitive issue for the Japanese. Despite the massive wave of incoming foreigners, Japan still has the lowest percentage of immigrants and expatriates among the advanced nations of the world.

This book has endeavored to deal with the major events and problems concerning foreigners from the inception of their arrival until now, and has tried to shed light on the historical perspective of foreigners in Japan to meet a growing international interest in Japan and the Japanese people. Another major purpose of this book is to explain the historical background of foreigners in Japan and intends to give information to general readers. It is not a meticulous description of any single event or single factor. An endeavor has been made to explain overall picture of foreigners and major contemporary events in the history of Japan, which have affected foreigners directly or indirectly, implicitly or explicitly, in this book. The First Chapter begins with a brief historical introduction and tries to explain who the Japanese are and what the sources of their culture were at the early stage of their development. Also, are the Japanese descendants of Goddesses as their mythical history claims? Where did they come from? The Second Chapter introduces the arrival of Europeans and their background. In the Third Chapter, the unification of Japan is discussed. There were serious ramifications regarding the unification of Japan, and the rise of the Tokugawa period on trade and other external relationships with foreigners or Westerners.

If Japan had not been unified under a strong central authority, the picture of the country could have been far different from what it is today. It could have been a colony of either the Portuguese or Spanish as many other Southeast Asian nations were or it could have been a Christian kingdom like the Philippines. On other hand, if Japan had not pursued an isolationist policy during the Tokugawa period, it could have been a far more powerful industrial nation long before the Meiji restoration took place. In addition, Japan could have colonized many Asian nations instead of European nations doing so and could have gone as far as the West Coast of America in its colonization. Japan had a high population compared with other parts of the world until the mid-twentieth century. Its population was roughly estimated to be about 18 million in 1600, and 30 million in 1700 compared with about 22 million in France and 20 million in Russia in 1700. When the government first began compiling data in 1899, the population of Japan was about 43 million. This data fairly indicates that Japan was far more populated and urbanized than any Western nation for a long period of time. It could have easily controlled the west coast of North America, diverting its excessive and explosive population there. Courageous warriors or samurai with an inherited high-spirit of fighting could have ruled these parts of the west coast of North America.

The consequence of isolation from Europeans is mentioned in Chapter Four. In Chapter Five, we see the opening of Japan to the West, after the arrival of Matthew C. Perry, and anti-foreign sentiment among Japanese samurai and rulers is discussed in Chapter Six. In Chapter Seven, we see the discussion of the modernization of Japan with the help of Western ideas, technology, and knowledge. Not only Westerners, but also Western ideas played a vital role in transforming Japan from an agrarian society to a modern, powerful, industrial nation during the Meiji Period. In Chapter Eight, the rise of Japan, its colonialism, destruction, and its miraculous re-emergence is discussed. In Chapter Nine, Japanese voyages overseas for immigration and settlement are mentioned. In Chapters 10 and 11, the arrival of the last wave of foreigners and laborers is discussed, as are the problems created by them. In Chapter 12, the major complaint of foreigners against the Japanese, which is discrimination, is discussed. The last chapter deals with different types of crimes committed by foreigners in the Land of the Rising Sun.

The writing of this book is based on the past and current literature, reliable sources of information in the form of books, government publications, periodicals and newspapers. A sampling of the sources used for this book is provided later in the form of endnotes and a bibliography. The study is limited to secondary data and has endeavored to analyze the overall historical perspective of foreigners. There can be some discrepancies of the historical facts according to different sources.

History itself is full of controversy and it is no different with Japanese history. From the beginning, the writing of Japanese history has been full of controversy. The history and origin of Japan is based more on historical myths and legends rather than facts, as in other parts of the world. One of the major problems was that Japan did not develop its own writing system, and probably a systematic pattern of language, until very late. Japan had borrowed from the Chinese writing system in the beginning of the fifth century and endeavored to write the history of Japan in the seventh century based on myths and legends. After the arrival of the Europeans, there were two sources of information and perception of Japanese history: Japanese and foreign. As a result, there are some discrepancies. For example, according to a European source, three Portuguese arrived in Tanegashima, Japan in 1543, while the Japanese source, teppo-ki, mentioned that there were about one hundred people, who first arrived in Japan. One can easily find this kind of controversy and discrepancy in Japanese history. For any errors in the historical facts, I am entirely responsible.

I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to all of my friends who provided me with their time, ideas and assistance in preparing this book. I am particularly deeply grateful to Ross Adkin, Y. B. Kshetry and Steven William Pitts for reviewing and editing this manuscript. I am also thankful to Rabin Gurung for his encouragement and mental support. I am very much indebted to all for their valuable suggestions, and making the publication of this book possible.

Gopal Kshetry

September 2008

Major Historical Periods of Japan

Japanese Terminology

Glossary of Abbreviations

MAP%201.tif

1

OVERVIEW OF JAPANESE HISTORIC RELATIONS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES

Aside from unsuccessful attempts at invasion in 1274 and 1281 by the Mongols under Emperor Kublai Khan, Japan has never faced a foreign invasion throughout its history. The Mongols faced a ferocious challenge from Japanese samurai and bad weather; and were forced into retreat in 1274. In this first attempt, a fleet of about 900-ships and a combined force of about 30,000 Mongols, Chinese and Koreans tried to conquer Japan, but were driven back by a big typhoon. Prior to this invasion, the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who had succeeded in conquering most of China and Korea, sent emissaries and demanded that Japanese rulers accept their country as being a tributary vassal of the Mongol kingdom, but Regent Hojo Tokimune (1251-84) rejected this proposal in Kyoto. He sent a mission of envoys to convince the Japanese rulers while preparing for war but the envoys were beheaded. After failing in his first attempt, Kublai Khan became even more determined to invade the Japanese archipelago.

The second attempt at an invasion, with an estimated 140,000 men, also failed after two months of fighting. Another big typhoon in the island of Takashima, in southwestern Japan, destroyed a more powerful invading fleet and forced them to withdraw in 1281. Some have estimated the number of invading ships could have been as many as 4,400. The Mongol armies who could not flee from Japanese soil were killed, or captured and enslaved. Although Japan was successful in stopping the invading force of Mongols, the Japanese forces also suffered heavy casualties in the battle, and the Japanese economy was severely affected. It had a serious political consequence, leading to the end of the Kamakura shogunate.

The Mongol forces lost the war more due to strong winds and bad weather than the fighting ability of Japanese warriors. The typhoons destroyed much of the Mongol fleet and forced them to retreat both times. This incident, is known as kamikaze, or divine wind, saved Japan from foreign invading troops and strengthened the belief of Japan being a sacred and divine land. Even after the failure of two attempts, Kublai Khan made further preparations to invade Japan but these were cancelled after his death in 1294. In this manner, Japan enjoyed complete independence for many centuries except for a brief occupation after World War II by the Allied powers.

Besides these incidents, Japan was protected from armed invasion from the continental powers and neighboring countries for many centuries. Japan did not have any close, dangerous neighbors who were looking for opportunities to invade. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, there was a remarkable expansion of Chinese fleets. The Chinese commander Cheng Ho (1371-1434) commanded the largest fleet in world history during the Ming period between 1405 and 1433. The Chinese sent their fleets southward, around the Indian Ocean and beyond. These Chinese fleets sailed to Sumatra, Java, India, Ceylon, Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and as far as the coast of Africa. They went as far as Timor and Moluccas in the east and to the Persian Gulf, Madagascar, and Somalia in the west. These ships carried many thousands of sailors, officials, merchants and soldiers on their voyages. But even with their sea power flourishing and expanding, the Chinese were reluctant to invade or interfere with the Japanese archipelago. In this way, the Japanese people lived in their land without disturbance from the outside world.

Before the arrival of Europeans in Japan, the Japanese trading, cultural and religious relationships were limited to China, Korea, and Ryukyu Islands (present-day Okinawa). The importance of the Ryukyu Islands as a trading center increased when friction between Japan and China heightened due to Japanese wako pirates who attacked Chinese seaports during the Ming dynasty, especially from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. In the second half of the fourteenth century, China refused to receive Japanese envoys, and the relationship between the two nations deteriorated. Chinese ships were prohibited from sailing into Japan, and Chinese people were forbidden to go to Japan. After the abortive Mongol attempts at the invasion of Japan, diplomatic relationships and intercourse between China and Japan ceased, but the private trading relationship resumed some time later. Private trading was carried out despite hostilities and occasional disturbances and again ships began to carry goods between the two countries.

When the diplomatic and economic relationship was severed between Japan and China during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Ryukyu Islands prospered as a business center and entrépot through which goods were imported from the Philippines, Siam (Thailand), Java (Indonesia), Malacca (Malaysia), Patani (present-day southern province of Thailand) and other Southeast Asian ports, including China and Korea. Many Ryukyuan merchants regularly sailed to different ports with goods. The Ryukyuan people developed strong commercial and cultural relationships with the Chinese of what is today Fujian province. The Ryukyu Islands served as a bridge and trading intermediary between Japan and other countries. The islands maintained close cultural and economic relationships with different countries and their culture and trade flourished.

One of the major compulsions for Japan to have limited contact with other nations in trading and other relationships was the geographical barrier and its isolated position. Japan is an island country, which is separated by the sea around it. The nearest part of the Asian continent is about 120 miles away, between Kyushu and Korea. In the days of primitive navigation, this distance barrier was considered fairly big. This geographical separation and location made the Japanese peninsula difficult to access from the outside world, and probably became one of the major factors in fostering a habit of isolation and aversion to foreign intercourse.¹ Moreover, even without trade and commerce with other nations, the inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago were able to fulfill their basic necessities during that period. For centuries, Japan remained aloof from world affairs and outside mainstream Asian history and development due to this geographical barrier of the sea.² As a result, throughout most of its history, Japan has been one of the most isolated nations among the major countries around the world. When the first Encyclopedia Britannica was published in the eighteenth century, it described only the latitude and longitude of Japan as this was all that was known of the country in the West.³

Origin of the Japanese

The origin of the Japanese people is still obscure and disputed by anthropologists, historians, and scientists; but many people believe that they are products of a mixed ancestry of immigrants from central parts of Asia, the southern region of China, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific islands. Observing their physical traits, biological characteristics, and a resemblance to Mongoloid, and the geographical location of Japan, it is not very difficult to come to a conclusion that the dominant group of migrants had entered from mainland Asia via the Korean peninsula; although other races like the Ainu were believed to be living in the Japanese archipelago before the arrival of modern Japanese.

Modern Japanese might be the descendants from a fusion of several races of migrants. The people who came from mainland Asia, mainly by the way of the Korean Peninsula, might have played the dominant role. Among these, the Manchu-Koreans, Chinese, or Mongols may have had a major part in this fusion. Some anthropologists believe that the Japanese are a mixture of a southern Malayo-Polynesian strain and Mongolian characteristics. The Malayo-Polynesian strain may have entered Kyushu and the western end of the main island from the Southeast Asian islands. According to this theory, some early immigrants entered Japan from Southeast Asia via Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands; however, there is no archeological evidence to support this idea.

Nevertheless, the Japanese are believed to be closely connected to the Mongoloid race, and they might have been the product of extensive racial mixture with other races who might have entered Japan from the southern and northern parts of Japan in different phases of its history. The racial affinities to East Asians and the structural similarity of the Japanese language to Korean also indicate the close relationship of their origin.⁴ Linguistically, the Mongoloids were considered Altaic-speaking tribal communities, which include Turkish, Mongolian, Korean, and Japanese. On the basis of linguistic relationship, the major source of Japanese could be Central Asia. The structural components of Japanese, in which consonants are followed by vowels, show some similarities to Finnish and Hungarian-Magyar.⁵ Ainu are believed to be the other group who were also part of the creation of modern Japanese people.

Some anthropologists believe that the first Japanese came on foot to the Japanese peninsula when it was connected by land to the continent of Asia during the glacial age (about 1,000,000-10,000 BC). Based on archaeological research, human activity in Japan began as early as 30,000 BC. It is widely believed that the earliest inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago were hunter-gatherers and fishermen, or Ainu, a primitive tribal people who are considered ethnically distinct from the rest of the Japanese population. Many scholars believe that the Ainu were the descendants of early Caucasoid peoples of northern Asia. The Ainu are considered pro-Caucasoid people, who had split off from the white race in the early stage of development of human beings and before the characteristics of this race had fully developed. They differ from all other East Asians and Japanese in facial appearance and body hair.

The origin of the Ainu is also not clearly identified; they might have migrated and entered the northern part of Japan from Siberia by way of Sakhalin Island and present Hokkaido more than 12,000 years ago. The Ainu might have populated most of the Japanese archipelago, until a wave of migrants and invaders came from across the sea with advanced technology and knowledge. Some others believe that horse-riding nomadic people from northern Asia entered via Korea and invaded Japan during the late third or fourth centuries and imposed their rule on the country. Many others disagree with this theory and claim that no single group of people ever invaded Japan.

Later, during the Yayoi period (300 BC-300 AD), the invading people came mainly from China and Korea, traveling in ships, and began conquering the Japanese archipelago. They might have entered from the Korean peninsula to Tsushima Island and thereafter to Kyushu, which was the shortest route from mainland Asia, of about 120 miles. These immigrants entered Japan in fluctuating groups from 200 BC to the latter half of the seventh century, and became the major source of imported foreign cultural elements into Japan. Some historians have estimated that Japan had received several million immigrants from Korea during the Yayoi period, while the number of Jomon people in Japan was thought to have been around 75,000 during that time.

Archeological evidence shows that large numbers of early peoples coming to the islands were from Korea and northeast Asia, and the steady stream of people to this archipelago continued until the eighth century. The Japanese archipelago, gradually, seems to have been overrun by the flow of migration. After the arrival of the Yayoi people, the Japanese archipelago marked the beginning of both technological and ethnic revolution. The Yayoi people were distinguished from the earlier Jomon people from their style of pottery, the way they used tools in agriculture, and the techniques of irrigation they used in rice cultivation. They produced pots by wheels and practiced advanced techniques in agriculture. The Jomon people used to make pottery by hand, not by wheel, used stone weapons and collected roots for living. The rope-pattern design designated their name as Jomon.

The original inhabitants—probably Ainu and other tribes of hunter-gatherers were gradually pushed towards the northern parts of Hokkaido from Honshu Island, or some others might have perished, in the same way as the Native Americans perished and were pushed towards the interior part of America by European immigrants. The commander Sakanouye Tamura Maro, under the Emperor Kammu, defeated the Ainu and extended the domains of Japan to the northeastern end of Honshu at the beginning of the ninth century. He achieved a remarkable success in bringing under his full command the unruly northeastern domains in 795 AD and later between 800 and 803 AD. For his success in unifying the northeastern territories and conquering the Ainu, the Emperor granted Tamura Maro the title of sei-tai-shogun, barbarian-subduing generalissimo, and he became the first person in the history of Japan to hold the title of shogun. The word shogun became a popular and coveted title for military men throughout the centuries until the downfall of the Tokugawa period in 1868.⁶ Only a very few thousand Ainu are surviving on the Kuril Islands and in reservations of Hokkaido as a culturally identifiable tribe; very few of them have remained full-blooded members of their race because of intermarriage with the Japanese.⁷ They are on the brink of absorption within the mainstream Japanese, culturally, linguistically and racially, and are gradually losing their original identity.

Recent archeological evidence and research of DNA taken from burial remains have revealed that modern Japanese are of close genetic kin to Koreans and Chinese. In the same research, it has been revealed that the first inhabitants of the islands had little in common with the most modern Japanese, but were almost identical to Ainu.⁸ But, still, fierce debate among anthropologists and scientists over whether the Jomon or the Yayoi were the true ancestors of modern Japanese is going on. Some other genetic DNA tests suggest the Jomon, the original inhabitants, and Yayoi, immigrants from Korea and mainland China, contributed significantly to the genes of most modern Japanese.⁹ According to several genetic studies, the Yayoi gene is more dominant than the Ainu-like Jomon gene.

The waves of immigrants from Korea and China who came around 300 and 400 BC secured a foothold in the new world of the Japanese archipelago. They introduced fishing, hunting, weaving, cultivation of rice, and the use of tools of iron and bronze. Rice was brought originally into Japan around 100 BC. Later on, rice became the major staple food for modern Japanese. It is believed that rice arrived in Japan via Korea from the Yangtze River basin of central China. Agriculture in Japan emerged around 300 AD with the incoming of these immigrants. Gradually, southwestern Japan and southern Korea formed a strong cultural bond and a closely related cultural sphere.

There were continuous waves of migration from Korea and China as refugees fled from the dynastic wars in their own country. Widespread wars were going on between the rulers of China and nomadic tribes to the north during the T’sin and Han dynasties. The Han dynasty invaded the Korean peninsula and conquered it in 108 BC. As a result, there was a constant flow of Chinese immigrants towards the Korean peninsula and thereafter to Japan. Early in the fourth century the population of whole villages arrived in Japan from Korea, and in the fifth and sixth centuries a large number of people from China migrated to the Japanese archipelago. Many of them were believed to be Chinese Korean, and highly skilled artisans and farmers. In one chronicle, it has been mentioned that people of T’sin numbered over 7,000 households and a total of over 100,000 individuals migrated to Japan in 540 BC.¹⁰ According to the Shojiroku, a peerage of that time, over one-third of the noble families of Japan claimed to have originated from Chinese or Korean families by the end of seventh century.¹¹ Edwin Reischauer and John Fairbank have mentioned that a book of noble genealogies of 815 AD shows that over 33 percent of 1,182 families of Yamato nobility were of foreign origin, mainly from Korea.¹² In addition, during the conflict between the regional rulers of Korea in the fifth to seventh centuries, a number of Korean immigrants entered Japan. When Silla rose as a powerful kingdom on the Korean peninsula and conquered Paekche in 562 AD and Koguryo in 668 AD, numbers of refugees entered Japan from that region. These refugees, who were known as kika-jin or torai-ijin, crossed over to Japan to avoid social and political upheaval in their homeland. They were given land and settled in different parts of Japan.¹³

These political refugees had higher skills and knowledge. As a result, they commanded respect, and occupied high rankings and important positions in the Yamato period. These newcomers introduced many foreign elements into Japanese society. They brought in the Confucian doctrine and introduced Chinese writing, which became a vital part of literary and official scripts. They played important roles as craftsmen and artists in the advancement of culture and civilization in Japan. In this manner, these immigrants played a vital role in the advancement of culture and civilization. At the same time, the indigenous language, social patterns, and religion of the original inhabitants was displaced by these newcomers.

A Brief History of Early Japan

Early history and events of Japan are derived from semi-mythical traditions, archeological facts, and Chinese and Korean chronicles. Scattered reports of Japan in the early centuries have been recorded in some Chinese historical accounts on a number of occasions. In fact, the Japanese learned their historiography from the Chinese. In 57 AD, Japan was mentioned for the first time in Chinese history. The history of Han of China or Han shu written during the first century has mentioned a brief contemporary history of Japan, consisting of a twenty-word sentence saying that, The Japanese people live beyond the Sea of Lolang (the present-day Korea), are divided into more than one hundred countries, and from time to time send their tributes.¹⁴ It has mentioned Japan as the land of ‘Wa’, which probably signified dwarf, or smaller in size than China.

According to Chinese history, the first contact Japan had with China occurred in 57 AD when a mission was sent to the court of the Han dynasty. A tribute mission was again sent in 107 AD. Another Chinese historical account Wei zhi (History of Wei), written around 297 AD, had described a civil war in Japan during the third century. It has also described how to reach the ancient kingdom of Yamatai, geography, and a contemporary account of the history, custom and beliefs of Japanese people. Dynastic histories described thirteen entries for five Japanese kings between 413 and 502 AD.¹⁵ It had mentioned Japan as a country of Yamatai ruled by an unmarried Empress Himiko. Most of the information was derived from officials and traders who had visited Japan and from the Japanese who had visited China. As a result, there are some inconsistencies and inaccuracies in some of the information given in the Chinese source. The geographical location of Yamatai and the identity of Empress Himiko were not clear and accurate. Probably, the Yamatai could refer to Yamato, the old capital of Japan, and Himiko to Himeko, or sun princess.

Due to the lack of a writing system in Japan, there was no authentic written history until very late. The authentic history of Japan begins in the seventh century. The earliest written history, which has survived to the present day dates back to the late seventh century and first half of the eighth century, and was based more on oral tradition and myth. There are two major mythical and primitive sources of history in Japan—Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) and Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), which were compiled in AD 712 and 720 respectively and are the oldest extant historical records of Japan. These two books tried to establish the historical position of the emperor and the Japanese state. Six more such histories were written covering the events of the Imperial Court and Japan by the end of the ninth century. The continuous recording of Japanese history began only from the seventh century onward after the introduction of the Chinese writing system in Japan. The Imperial Court ordered officials to compile a history of Japan, mainly to glorify the imperial dynasty. Kojiki was a narrative history of Japan based on many old tales, legends, songs, anecdotes, language, and folklore. It contained the myths and legends of Japan and was the court’s version of the origin of the imperial dynasty and the beginning of Japan as a nation. It became the earliest source book in Japanese history and literature. On the other hand, Nihon Shoki was written as an official history in the Chinese style and is more reliable than the Kojiki regarding historical facts and perspective.

According to the Nihon Shoki, two gods—male Izanagi and female Izanami—descended from heaven to earth in order to create the Japanese islands. Many other gods also accompanied them, and the Sun Goddess (Amaterasu) was one of them. It was believed that Jimmu (Divine Warrior), the first Emperor of Japan, was the descendant of Amaterasu and established the Japanese Empire and present Imperial throne on February 11, 660 BC in Kyushu, the southwestern part of Japan. Emperor Akihito is regarded as the 125th descendent of Jimmu. According to legend, not only the emperor, but also the people of Japan are descendants of the Sun Goddess. Gradually, Jimmu expanded his domain towards the central part of Japan, Yamato (about today’s Nara Prefecture), and the authority of Yamato eventually extended to most of Japan except the northern part where the Ainu were living. The southern part of present Kyoto is known as the Yamato plain. In the beginning, the Japanese had called their country Yamato, which became synonymous for Japan, and it became the site of the final settlement of the people who came from Kyushu. In the beginning of the Yamato period, it is believed that the Japanese population was more heterogeneous in comparison to that of the present population. Then, most of the northern parts were under the reign of the Ainus’ ancestors. By the end of the ninth century, the Yamato court ruled all the main islands of Japan besides Ezo (Hokkaido).

Nara, which was officially known as Heijo-kyo during that time, became the first permanent national capital in 710 AD and remained so until 784 AD. It is believed that the population of Nara reached 200,000, which was nearly 4 percent of the total population of Japan, and that there were about 10,000 people working for the government.¹⁶ The total population of Japan was estimated to be nearly five million at that time. Nara was a replica of the imperial city of Chang’an, which is now called Xi’an, and located in Shannxi Province, China. Chang’an had broad-patterned avenues, pagodas, temples, and was planned using a rectangular grid pattern for city streets. Chang’an, the capital of Tang China, was the largest city on earth with a population of 1.2 million during the seventh and eighth centuries. Then, Emperor Kammu moved the capital to Nagaoka in 784 AD, but this ended in failure due to a quarrel. The emperor’s brother was involved in a dispute with an official in charge of the building and killed him. After the killing, he was banished and died in exile. After ten years, the capital was transferred to Kyoto, known as Heian-kyo, about thirty miles north of Nara, in 794 AD.

One of the major factors in moving the capital from Nara was to avoid the excessive influence and power of Buddhist monks and their political interference in court. The emperor wanted to avoid religious interference from the Buddhist monks. The relationship between Empress Koken, who was also known as Empress Shotoku (718-70 AD), and the monk Dokyo, who became a powerful grand minister in 764 AD, began to interfere with the political matters of Yamato. Despite the opposition of many nobles of the court and the Fujiwara family’s attempt to topple Dokyo, he became Koken’s confidant and chancellor. Dokyo made an abortive attempt to seize the throne with the help of Koken. After the death of Koken in 770 AD, Dokyo’s ambition to be the emperor was over, and he was banished and died in exile. As a result, Emperor Kammu (reigned 781-806 AD) moved the capital to a safer place, in Kyoto. Another major factor in the move was that Kyoto had much more space and an abundant availability of water, and was more convenient to access to the rest of the country than Nara. After being established as the capital of Japan, Kyoto served as the political, cultural and religious center of Japan for more than one millennium, until the beginning of the Meiji period. Before establishing the permanent capital, the emperor used to move frequently from one city to another. It was customary for the successor to move the capital after the death of an emperor because according to an ancient belief the place was considered polluted by death.

Cultural Influence and Borrowing from China

The immigrants from China and Korea became the major sources of knowledge of civilization and trade in Japan. From the beginning of the Yayoi period, people began to obtain new technologies from Korea and China. By the sixth century, there had been heavy flows of cultural influence into Japan from these two neighboring countries, and Japan was engaged in a remarkable process of cultural borrowing until the ninth century. Chinese philosophy, literature, education, medicine, governance, architecture, and writing became popular in Japan and a part of Japanese civilization. The indigenous Japanese learned more advanced methods of manufacturing, papermaking, printing, woodworking, art, music and dancing.

Japan dispatched many group of emissaries to China to learn about the advanced culture, religion and political institutions of China, systematically borrowing the superior foreign cultural elements of Chinese civilization. Prince Shotoku sent a large official delegation, probably the first, in 607 AD to China to study the Chinese civilization, which was one of the most advanced among the civilized nations of the world during that period. He included bright young men in order to study China’s better sources of knowledge. The mission of envoys was led by Ono-no-Imoko and carried a letter to the Sui emperor. The letter mentioned that the emperor of the sunrise country has written to the emperor of sunset country.¹⁷ This was the first organized program of foreign study in the world. The members of the mission were selected for their knowledge of Chinese literature, philosophy, and history or Buddhist theology and ritual, or for their skill in the arts of painting, poetry, or music. Some of them remained for a decade or two until the next delegation went to China. After returning from China, these emissaries assumed leadership in their respective areas of specialty and contributed in transmitting the superior elements of Chinese culture. Many other delegations followed suit during the next two and half centuries.

Prince Shotoku became a devotee of Buddhism and studied Buddhism under a Korean monk. He wrote commentaries on Buddhist sculpture and built monasteries near Nara. Shotoku founded the five-storied Pagoda of the Horyuji monastery, which is the oldest wooden building in the world and is located in the southwest of Nara. It is considered an example of the Buddhist architectural style of the Six Dynasties period (220-589 AD). It was originally built in 607 and might have been partly or entirely destroyed by a fire in 670 AD and reconstructed at the beginning of eighth century.¹⁸ For the Japanese, Buddhism was the carrier of all the attributes of Chinese civilization. Although the origin of Buddhism is not China or Korea, the influence came to Japan filtered through Chinese and Korean practices.

The centralized government of the Chinese system also immensely influenced the first Japanese constitution, which was drafted under the guidance of Prince Shotoku in 604. This constitution was known as the ‘Seventeen Article Constitution’ which included moral and political principles of China for good governance. The civil code adopted by Japan was devised in China during the Sui (581-618 AD) and T’ang (618-907 AD) dynasties and consisted of administrative laws and penal codes. The T’ang period in China was a time of unprecedented achievements of brilliant cultural advancements and grandeur. In this manner, Prince Shotoku played a vital role in promoting Chinese ideas. At that period, many Chinese and Korean scholars, monks and immigrants were welcomed in Japan. Chinese culture and civilization reached Japan indirectly by the way of Korea. The immigrants brought knowledge of the arts and sciences to Japan.

Despite the sincere effort of Prince Shotoku to reform the political and social structure of Yamato according to the Chinese paradigm, real reform could not be achieved due to powerful aristocrats who wanted to keep their power and influence over the national affairs of state. After the death of Prince Shotoku in 622 AD, the Soga family, of Korean origin, became an impediment to reforms and progress. A group of students and scholars, who had returned to Japan after studying in China, seized political power from the Soga clan through a coup d’etat in 645 AD. In this coup, Soga Iruka was assassinated at the court, and Soga Emishi was later executed.

There were two leading figures of this coup: one was Prince Naka-no-oe, who was later known as Emperor Tenchi (661-71 AD) and took the additional title, tenno (heavenly sovereign), and the other was Nakatomi-no Kamatari. Prince Naka assumed the position of minister of the center and played a vital role in the reformation. His advisor Kamatari was given a new family name in 669—Fujiwara Kamatari and became the first of a long line of court aristocrats in the history of Japan. The Fujiwara family became a very powerful and leading family that dominated the Japanese political scene from 857 AD to 1160. The family was influential in the court circle for many centuries. These reformists transplanted superior continental cultural elements into Japan, which is known as the Taika reform (Great Change) in the first phase of the glorious history of learning from China. Many reforms were carried out during the Taika reform. The census of land and population was taken with the intent of re-distributing the land and ending the existing landholding system of the great clans. The government redistributed the feudal landholdings to the farmers. All the land of Japan was declared to belong to the emperor. However, the landholding nobles continued to live on their land at the emperor’s wish. Nobles were assigned the duties of court or other administrative duties.

The Taika reformists reformed the military service and established conscription. The bureaucratic system was established and bureaucrats were recruited by examination in the Chinese style. China was considered the first nation in the world to hire bureaucrats through examination. However, the candidacy was limited to the feudal classes in Japan. Another very important and long lasting change during this time was the use of the name of Japan as Nippon or Nihon or sometimes Dai Nippon (Great Japan) in diplomatic documentary and chronicles, which became the beginning of the end of the use of Yamato, the old name of Japan. Nihon or Nippon carried the meaning of ‘sun’ and ‘source’ in Chinese character and was translated as the Land of the Rising Sun. This name was mentioned in the imperial correspondence with China and referred to the eastward position of Japan relative to China. In this way, several reforms based on the Chinese model were carried out with great vigor and enthusiasm.

Another major reform known as the Taiho Code was carried out in 702 AD. The Taiho Code provided Japan a code of law and a formal system of government administration. It was a revised Chinese code of government conduct. The code emphasized the enhancement of the power of the imperial court