History of Japan
Glossary
The Japanese Paleolithic (旧石器時代, kyū-sekki-jidai

Paleolithic 35000–14000 BCE
Jōmon period 14000–300 BCE
Yayoi period 300 BCE–250 CE
Kofun period 250–538
Asuka period 538–710
Nara period 710–794
Heian period 794–1185
Kamakura period 1185–1333

• Kemmu restoration 1333–1336
  Muromachi period 1336–1573
  
  
  
  • Nanboku-chō period 1336–1392
    Sengoku period
    Azuchi-Momoyama period 1568–1603
    
    
    
    • Nanban trade
      Edo period 1603–1868
      
      
      
      • Late Tokugawa shogunate
        Meiji period 1868–1912
        
        
        
        • Meiji Restoration
          Taishō period 1912–1926
          
          
          
          • Japan in WWI
            Shōwa period 1926–1989
            
            
            
            • Japanese expansionism
              Occupation of Japan
              Post-Occupation Japan
              Heisei 1989–present
              Economic history Educational history Military history Naval history Paleolithic environment
              The earliest Japanese stone tools, chipped stone hand axes and cleavers, were found at the site of Kami-Takamori in Miyagi Prefecture, and dated to c. 500,000 BCE, but were later found to have been forgeries planted by Fujimura Shinichi.
              
              Earliest Japanese tools
              The Japanese Paleolithic is also highly original in that it incorporates the earliest known ground stone tools and polished stone tools in the world, dated to around 30,000 BCE, a technology typically associated with the beginning of the Neolithic, around 10,000 BCE, in the rest of the world. It is not known why such tools were created so early in Japan, although the period is associated with a warmer climate worldwide (30,000-20,000 before present), and the islands may have particularly benefited from it.
              Because of this originality, the Japanese Paleolithic period in Japan does not exactly match the traditional definition of Paleolithic based on stone technology (chipped stone tools). Japanese Paleolithic tool implements thus display Mesolithic and Neolithic traits as early as 30,000 BCE.
              
              Japanese archeology of the Paleolithic period