The Japanese Palaeolithic deserves more attention in Western narratives about human expansion across Asia

Japan deserves more attention than it has so far received in Western narratives about the expansion of humans across Asia. It has over 10,000 Palaeolithic sites, many of which are well-dated. Japan provides excellent examples of Pleistocene sea-faring and long-distance Palaeolithic exchange networks. Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands may provide one of the earliest examples of humans deliberately trans-locating an animal to a new environment. Japan may also have been a starting point for the colonisation of the Americas.