Wajin (倭人,Wajin; literally "Wa people") is

• in the narrow sense, the old name of theethnic group of theYayoi people who lived in theJapanese archipelago.
• In the wider sense, an ethnic group that was mainly active at sea betweenmainland China, theKorean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago.

In general the Wajin that established themselves on the Japanese archipelago became theYayoi people, the ancestors of theYamato people.^[1] The word "Wajin" also refers to related groups outside of Japan.

The first secure appearance of Wajin is in "Treatise on Geography" (地理志) of theBook of Han (漢書). After that, in "GishiWajinden" ((魏志倭人伝), a Japanese abbreviation for the "account of Wajin" in the "Biographies of theWuhuan,Xianbei, andDongyi" (烏丸鮮卑東夷傳), Volume 30 of the"Book of Wei" (魏書) of theRecords of the Three Kingdoms (三国志)),^[2] their lifestyle, habits and the way of society are described and by cultural commonality such as lifestyle, customs and languages, they are distinguished themselves from "Kanjin" (han people (韓人)) and "Waijin" (Wai people (濊人)).

Descriptions about Wajin can be found in theOld Book of Tang (945 AD) and theNew Book of Tang (1060 AD)

Several linguists, includingAlexander Vovin andJuha Janhunen, suggest thatJaponic languages were spoken by Wajin and were present in large parts of the southernKorean Peninsula. According to Vovin, these "Peninsular Japonic languages" were replaced byKoreanic-speakers (possibly belonging to theHan-branch). This event was possibly the reason for the Yayoi-migration into Japan.^[3] Janhunen also suggests that earlyBaekje was still predominantly Japonic-speaking before they got replaced or assimilated into the new Korean society.^[4]

"Wa (倭)" was the Chinese name for Japan in ancient times, but the oldest source on its origin is a document written in the 200s by theWei official (魏の官人) Rujun (如淳), who argued that Wa was derived from the word "people" (人偏) who had the custom of "tattooing (委) on the face." This theory is also supported by many Japanese scholars, as the indigenousAinu people of Japan have the custom of tattooing (sinuye). Furthermore, Chinese from the Qin and Han dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties is known to have a pronunciation close to modern Cantonese, and even in modern Cantonese, the pronunciation of "委奴: Wainu (wai2 nou4)" and "倭奴: Wainu (wai1 nou4)," referring to the "Ainu (Wainu) people," has unchanged from ancient times to the present day.^[5]

The ethnic concept of "Wa-zoku (倭族, literally "Wa people")" encompasses a wide range of regions and does not limit to the Wajin of the Japanese archipelago. According to Kenzaburo's theory,^[6] Wa-zoku are Wajin who came to the Japanese archipelago with rice crop, whose ancestor was the same as theYayoi people.^[7] Torigoe says that the original place of the Wa-zoku isYunnan.^[6]

Suwa Haruo considered Wa-zoku to be part ofBaiyue (百越) insouthern China.^[8]

The Wajin (and the Yayoi) are possibly descendants of theWu people. A largepaddy ruins in the area was created around 450 BC, theWarring States period, inKyushu, and a record states that "Wajin [were the] self-named descendants of Zhou". An influential theory states that the Wu people of theYangtze River area that followed thehydroponic rice cultivation culture, which is also a symbol ofYangtze civilization, drifted to the Japanese archipelago around the 5th century BC, in collaboration with the destruction of the Kingdom of Wu.^{[citation needed]}

• Wajinden
• Ancient Japan
• Tribes of ancient Japan

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