300 BC-AD 300 Yayoi

Starting about 300 BC, contact with people from the mainland cultures of China and Korea caused very significant changes in Japanese society. Methods of rice cultivation were introduced in the south-west and gradually spread eastwards, bringing an end to the previous hunter-gatherer mode of life. The period of approximately 600 years is known as Yayoi after the archaeological site in Tokyo where pottery characteristic of the period was first discovered.

Another major development during this period was the mastery of casting metal, which was used to make tools and ritual objects. People were also developing skills in working jade and jasper, and moulding glass.

Rice cultivation brought with it the establishment of settled agricultural communities. As these increased in size, society became stratified: an elite held power, and people began to specialise in particular tasks, such as metal-working or ceramics production. The layout of villages became more complex, with watch-towers and moats built for defence. People performed rituals to ask the deities for a bountiful rice crop, using ceremonial metal objects such as the bells known as dôtaku. Chinese records tell us that by the end of the Yayoi period people in the Japanese islands were organised into many separate kingdoms.