Prehistory
Archaeological research indicates that Japan had already been occupied by early humans at least 600,000 years ago, during the Lower Paleolithic period. Over repeated ice ages during the last million years, Japan was regularly connected by land bridges to the Asian mainland (by Sakhalin to the North, and probably Kyushu to the South), facilitating migrations of humans, animals and plants to the Japanese archipelago from the area that is now China and Korea. The Japanese Paleolithic produced the earliest known polished stone tools, around 30,000 BC.
With the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (last ice age) and general warming period, the Jomon culture emerged around 11,000 BC, characterized by a Mesolithic to Neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer lifestyle and the manufacture of the earliest known pottery in the world. It is thought that Jomon populations were the ancestors of the Proto-Japanese and today's Ainu.
The start of the Yayoi period around 300 BC marked the influx of new technologies such as rice farming, irrigation and iron and bronze-making, brought by migrants from Korea, China and other parts of Asia.
That period was succeeded around AD 250 by the Kofun period, characterized by the establishment of strong military states. In 538, the introduction of Buddhism marks the beginning of the Classical Era.
Classical era
According to traditional Japanese mythology, Japan was founded in the 7th century BC by the ancestral Emperor Jinmu, who started a line of emperors that remains unbroken to this day. Nonetheless, for most of its history, real power was in the hands of the court nobility, the shoguns, the military, or, recently, prime ministers.
Recorded Japanese history began in the 5th and 6th centuries AD, when the Chinese writing system, Buddhism, and other Chinese culture was introduced by Baekje, a kingdom in Korea. Through the Taika Reform Edicts of 645, Japanese intensified the adoption of Chinese cultural practices, and reorganized government in accordance with the Chinese administrative structure. This paved the way for the dominance of Chinese Confucian philosophy in Japan until the 19th century.
The Nara period of the 8th century marked the first strong Japanese state centered around an imperial court in the city of Heijo-kyo (now Nara). The imperial court later moved to Nagaoka and later Heian-kyo (now Kyoto), starting a "golden age" of classical Japanese culture called the Heian period.
Medieval era
Japan's medieval era was characterized by the emergence of a ruling class of warriors called samurai. In the year 1185, general Minamoto Yoritomo was the first to break the tradition of ruling alongside the Emperor in Kyoto, holding power in Kamakura, just south of present-day Yokohama. After Yoritomo's death, another warrior clan, the Hojo, came to rule as regents for the shoguns. The shogunate managed to repel a Mongol invasion from Mongol-occupied China in 1274 and 1281. While this Kamakura shogunate was somewhat stable, Japan soon fell into warring factions and suffered through what became known as the Warring States or Sengoku period.
During the 16th century, traders and missionaries from Europe reached Japan for the first time, initiating the "Nanban" ("Southern barbarian") period of active commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. Around the same time, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, established increasingly strong control over the warring states of Japan. Nobunaga's barbaric and authoritarian handling of the country made him an unpopular warlord, though his military genius was not to be ignored. Hideyoshi's disastrous invasion of Korea in 1592 also gave him a bad name in Japanese History, especially after the Japanese were repulsed by the Ming Dynasty Chinese forces and Korean naval forces.
Tokugawa finally reunified the country by defeating his enemies at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, moving the capital to Edo (now Tokyo) and starting the Tokugawa shogunate.
The Tokugawa shogunate, suspicious of the influence of Catholic missionaries, barred all relations with Europeans except for severely restricted contacts with Dutch merchants at the artificial island of Dejima. They also became more conscious of trade with China, especially after the Manchus conquered China and established the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The Manchus conquered Korea in 1637, and the Japanese were scared of a Manchu invasion. Thus, the country became more isolated than ever before. This period of isolation lasted for two and a half centuries, a time of tenuous political unity known as the Edo period, considered to be the height of Japan's medieval culture.
Modern era
In 1854, U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry forced the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa. The perceived weakness of the shogunate led many samurai to revolt, leading to the Boshin War of 1867-8. Subsequently the shogunate resigned and the Meiji Restoration returned the Emperor to power. Japan adopted numerous Western institutions in the Meiji period, including a modern government, legal system, and military. These reforms transformed the Empire of Japan into a world power which defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War and Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. By 1910, Japan controlled Taiwan, half of Sakhalin, and Korea.
The early 20th century saw a brief period of "Taisho democracy" overshadowed by the rise of Japanese expansionism. In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact and joined with Germany and Italy to form the axis alliance. In 1937, Japan invaded Manchuria which led to the the second Sino-Japanese War (1937). During the war, the Japanese army committed a number of atrocities, such as the Rape of Nanking, which remain the subject of tensions between the country and its neighbours. In 1941, Japan attacked the United States naval base in Pearl Harbor, bringing America into World War II. After a long campaign in the Pacific Ocean, Japan lost its initial territorial gains, and the United States moved into range to begin strategic bombing of Tokyo, Osaka and other major cities as well as atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan eventually agreed to an unconditional surrender to the Allies on August 15, 1945 (V-J Day).
Official American occupation lasted until 1952, although U.S. forces still have important bases in six prefectures of Japan (and minor facilities in some others) and are responsible for defense. Many critics argue that Japan is still occupied by America in a military sense. Japan adopted a new constitution, establishing the country as a pacifist constitutional monarchy, in 1947 under the occupation authority. After occupation, under a program of aggressive industrial development, protectionism, and deferral of strategic defense to the United States, Japan's gross national product rose to become the second-highest in the world. Despite a major stock market crash in 1990, from which the country has not fully recovered, Japan remains a global economic power and has recently begun to re-emerge as a strategic power, lending non-combat support to the Gulf War, the UN efforts to rebuild Cambodia, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Japan spends about US$46 billion on its military yearly, ranking among the top five military spenders in the world.
For more information, please visit Japan at Wikipedia.org and The History of Japan.