History of Japan

Japan Map

The history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. The first known written reference to Japan is in the brief information given in Twenty-Four Histories, a collection of Chinese historical texts, in the 1st century CE. However, there is evidence that suggests people were living on the islands of Japan since the upper Paleolithic period. Following the last ice-age, around 12,000 BCE, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese Archipelago fostered human development. The earliest-known pottery belongs to the Jōmon period.

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1 Japanese prehistory

    1.1 Paleolithic Age (35.000 - 14.000 BC)

2 Ancient Japan

    2.1 Jōmon period (14.000 - 300 BC)

    2.2 Yayoi period (300 BC - 250 AD)

    2.3 Kofun period (250 - 538)

3 Classical Japan

    3.1 Asuka period (538 - 710)

    3.2 Nara period (710 - 794)

    3.3 Heian period (794 - 1185)

4 Feudal Japan (1185–1868)

    4.1 Kamakura period (1185 - 1333)

    4.2 Kemmu Restoration (1333 - 1336)

    4.3 Muromachi period / Ashikaga (1336 - 1573)

          4.3.1 Nanboku-chō period (1336 - 1392)

          4.3.2 Sengoku period (1467 - 1573)

    4.5 Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568 - 1603)

5 Edo period / Tokugawa(1603–1868)

    5.1 Seclusion

    5.2 End of seclusion

6 Meiji period (1868 - 1912)

    6.1 Meiji Restoration

    6.2 Wars with China and Russia

OSAKA CASTLE

    6.3 Anglo-Japanese Alliance

7 Taishō period (1912 - 1926)

    7.1 World War I 

    

8 Shōwa period (1926–1989)

    8.1 Shōwa financial crisis
    8.2 Japanese militarism
    8.3 Occupation of Japan
    8.4 Post-occupation Japan

9 Heisei period (1989 – present)
    9.1 Lost Decade

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