⛩️ New report · Japan and Korea

Yamato

Your Japanese and Korean Roots

For people with roots in mainland Japan, Okinawa and the Ryukyu islands, the Korean peninsula and Jeju, and for Japanese and Korean families abroad. We model your DNA against the ancient regional core (the Jomon, Chulmun Korea, the Yayoi rice farmers, Kofun Japan, Three Kingdoms Korea, the Okhotsk culture of Hokkaido and early modern Ryukyu) and non-regional outside admixture, then show which of 5 communities is your closest reference, with an AI narrative.

🏺 Ancient regional core (Jomon, Chulmun, Yayoi, Kofun, Three Kingdoms)
🌏 Non-regional layer (mainland Chinese, steppe and wider sources)
🗾 5 communities compared directly
🧬 Y-DNA & mtDNA haplogroup classification
📊 5 periods, from the Deep past to the early modern era
🤖 Results interpreted by Claude AI, in 7 languages including Japanese, Korean and Chinese

⚠️ Designed for people with roots in Japan and Korea. Works for any of the 5 communities, from mainland Japan and Okinawa to Korea and Jeju, and for Japanese and Korean families abroad (Japanese-American, Korean-American, the Nikkei of Brazil and Peru, mixed and hapa families: the report reads the Japanese or Korean part of your DNA). If your roots are mainly Chinese, Vietnamese or elsewhere in East Asia, Fenghuang fits better. If you are mostly of other ancestry, the fit will be poor and our Advanced Ancestry Report is a better choice. Not sure? The free Report Finder tells you.

Who it is for

Japanese families from Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku, with their Jomon, Yayoi and Kofun layers.
Okinawans and Ryukyuans, whose DNA carries more Jomon-related ancestry than the mainland.
Koreans of the South and the North, and the Koreans of Yanbian in China.
Jeju Islanders, from the old island kingdom of Tamna.
Nikkei and Japanese-American families in Brazil, Peru, Hawaii, the United States and Canada.
Korean diaspora families in the United States, Canada, Central Asia and elsewhere, including mixed and hapa families.

1. Choose your community

Pick the community your family comes from. Not sure, or mixed origins? Choose "Let the model decide" and we compare you to every community automatically. Some of these communities are genetically very close to each other, so the result is always a closest reference, never a prefecture or province call.

Japanese (mainland: Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku)

mainland Japan (Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku): Jomon foragers overlaid by the rice farmers of the Yayoi period, who came largely from the Korean peninsula, then a further continental layer in the Kofun period; published studies find that the Jomon-related share varies somewhat between regions

Ryukyuan (Okinawa; early modern Nagabaka samples as reference)

Okinawa and the Ryukyu islands, where the Jomon-related share is higher than on the mainland; the reference is built from early modern samples of Nagabaka (Okinawa Prefecture), as no modern Okinawan average is available

Korean (mainland, incl. Koreans of Yanbian)

the Korean peninsula, North and South, including the Koreans of Yanbian in China: Chulmun Neolithic roots, the Mumun farmers of the Bronze Age, then the Three Kingdoms, Goryeo and Joseon

Jeju Islander

Jeju island off the southern coast of Korea, the old kingdom of Tamna, whose reference sits very close to mainland Koreans and a little closer to the Japanese than they are

Northern Chinese and Manchu (Shandong, Beijing, Liaoning)

the nearest mainland reference: Northern Chinese and Manchu of Shandong, Beijing and Liaoning, included so that a profile closer to the mainland than to Korea or Japan is recognised

🔎 Let the model decide (auto)

We detect which community you are genetically closest to.

What your report models, era by era

🦴 Deep ancestry

The Jomon hunter-gatherers of the archipelago (a deep, long-isolated East Asian coastal lineage), the Ancient Northeast Asians of the Amur basin, and the Yellow River millet farmers and Yangtze River rice farmers of China: the prehistoric building blocks of every profile.

🏺 Jomon and Chulmun era

About 14,000 to 1000 BC: the Jomon of Honshu and Hokkaido, the Neolithic people of the Ryukyu islands, and Chulmun Korea with its comb-pattern pottery, with Shandong and West Liao River farmers as mainland references.

🌾 Yayoi and Bronze Age

About 1000 BC to AD 250: rice farmers from the Korean peninsula reach northern Kyushu and mix with the Jomon, while Late Jomon foragers persist. The Yayoi reference is only two individuals, and no high-quality Korean Bronze Age genome exists yet: the report says so.

⛰️ Kofun and Three Kingdoms

About AD 250 to 700: the burial-mound era of Kofun Japan, which added a further continental layer, and Three Kingdoms Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla, Gaya), with Han Dynasty China and the Xianbei steppe as outside references.

🏯 Medieval and early modern

About AD 700 to 1800: the Okhotsk seafarers of Hokkaido, part of the ancestry of the Ainu, early modern Ryukyu, the Japan of the Kofun descendants and the Korea of Goryeo and Joseon, with Tang to Ming China as an outside reference.

🌍 Non-regional outside admixture

Even for people fully from Japan or Korea, we include mainland Chinese, steppe, European, Southeast Asian, South Asian, African and Amerindian proxies, so any real outside ancestry is detected honestly instead of being force-fit onto the wrong regional population.

🗾 Closest communities

Which of the 5 communities your DNA most closely resembles, ranked by distance. Some are very close genetically, so this is a closest reference: near-ties are shown as ties.

🧬 Y-DNA & mtDNA lineages

If your raw DNA file is available, we classify your paternal and maternal haplogroups in a Japanese and Korean context (e.g. D1a2a, O1b2, O2, C2; maternal D4, M7a, N9b, B4), always as one line among thousands of ancestors.

47 reference populations

Your DNA is modelled against ancient regional proxies, modern community reference populations, and non-regional outside proxies (mainland Chinese, steppe and wider sources).

Amerindian proxy

Amerindian (North) proxy · Amerindian (South) proxy

Deep ancestral sources

Ancient Northeast Asian (Amur basin, Devil's Gate Neolithic) · Deep European proxy (generic West Eurasian) · Deep South Asian proxy (generic Indian subcontinent) · Jomon hunter-gatherers of the Japanese archipelago (deep East Asian coastal lineage) · Yangtze River Neolithic rice farmers (southern China, Liangzhu) · Yellow River Neolithic farmers (northern China, Dawenkou) · Yoruba (West African proxy)

East Asian host

Southern Chinese and Southeast Asian (Cantonese, Vietnamese)

European host

NW European · S European (Italian)

Jomon and Chulmun-era sources

Chulmun Neolithic Korea (Ando, Changhang, Yokchido; comb-pattern pottery) · Jomon of Honshu and Hokkaido (Initial to Late Jomon) · Neolithic European proxy (generic West Eurasian) · Neolithic Ryukyu islands (Nagabaka) · Neolithic South Asian proxy (generic Indian subcontinent) · Neolithic Yoruba proxy (West African) · Shandong Neolithic farmers (Houli, Dawenkou, Longshan; mainland source, non-regional proxy) · West Liao River and Amur Neolithic (Hongshan, Heilongjiang; mainland source, non-regional proxy)

Kofun and Three Kingdoms sources

Classical European proxy (generic West Eurasian) · Classical South Asian proxy (generic Indian subcontinent) · Classical Yoruba proxy (West African) · Han Dynasty and Warring States northern China (Shandong; mainland source, non-regional proxy) · Jomon-related ancestry (Classical era, persisting in Hokkaido and the archipelago) · Kofun period Japan (Iwade, burial-mound era; East Asian migrants added to the Yayoi mix) · Three Kingdoms Korea (Daeseong-dong, Dangbuk-ri, Yuha-ri; Gaya, Silla, Baekje era) · Xianbei and Mongolian steppe (non-regional proxy)

Medieval and early modern sources

Early modern Ryukyu (Nagabaka, Okinawa) · Mainland Japanese and Korean ancestry of the Kofun and Three Kingdoms lineage (medieval proxy: Heian to Edo Japan, Goryeo and Joseon Korea) · Medieval European proxy (generic West Eurasian) · Medieval South Asian proxy (generic Indian subcontinent) · Medieval Yoruba proxy (West African) · Okhotsk culture of Hokkaido (Hamanaka, Amur-related seafarers, 5th-13th c.) · Tang to Ming northern China (Shandong, Henan; mainland source, non-regional proxy)

Modern Japanese and Korean communities

Japanese (mainland: Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku) · Jeju Islander · Korean (mainland, incl. Koreans of Yanbian) · Northern Chinese and Manchu (Shandong, Beijing, Liaoning) · Ryukyuan (Okinawa; early modern Nagabaka samples as reference)

Yayoi and Bronze Age sources

Bronze Age European proxy (generic West Eurasian) · Bronze Age northern China (Erlitou, Shang, Zhou; mainland source, non-regional proxy) · Bronze Age South Asian proxy (generic Indian subcontinent) · Bronze Age Yoruba proxy (West African) · Late Jomon foragers (still present across the archipelago) · Upper Xiajiadian and Liaoning Bronze Age (northeast China, non-regional proxy) · Yayoi rice farmers of northern Kyushu (Kuma-Nishioda; continental migrants mixed with Jomon)

How it works, and its limits

🔬 How to read your results (please read)

Your result is computed by genetic similarity (Global25): we place your DNA in a 25-dimension genetic space and find the mixture of reference populations that best reproduces your profile, era by era. The reference populations use G25 coordinates built from published ancient-DNA studies and modern reference samples; none of our reference data is simulated.

Reference populations are statistical proxies: "Yayoi rice farmers" or "Kofun period Japan" means a handful of individuals sampled at one site (two for the Yayoi, three for the Kofun period), not a whole people. A Jomon-like or Yayoi-like percentage is a similarity to those samples, not proof of an ethnicity or a specific ancestor. Jomon and Yayoi are names of archaeological periods, not ethnic categories, and the report never treats one group as the "real" Japanese.

Genetics is not identity: this report is not a national, ethnic or political determination. There is no Ainu reference, the Ryukyuan community is represented by early modern samples, and few Neolithic and no high-quality Bronze Age genomes exist from the Korean peninsula, so mainland Chinese references stand in for its continental farming ancestry. The report says all of this plainly.

Why group these 5 communities in one report? They share the same formation story: Jomon foragers and Chulmun Korea, the continental farmers who crossed the peninsula and the Korea Strait, the Kofun and Three Kingdoms period, and the medieval worlds of Goryeo, Joseon, Hokkaido and the Ryukyus, with their own regional emphases.

Free check · no email needed

Is Yamato right for your DNA?

Paste your G25 coordinates or drop your raw DNA file. We run the same fit test as our free Report Finder, for Yamato only, and show you your verdict, your regional core and your 3 closest communities before you spend anything.

Click or drop your raw DNA file here 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, FTDNA, LivingDNA or a chip VCF (Genotek, Atlas): .txt, .csv, .vcf, .zip or .gz

A raw file takes 1 to 3 minutes: we first estimate your G25 coordinates from it.

🔒 Your file is processed for this check only and immediately deleted.

⚠️ Designed for people with roots in Japan and Korea (including Japanese and Korean families abroad). If you are mostly of other ancestry, the models are calibrated for fully-regional profiles and the fit will be poor.

Get your Yamato report

Select your community above, then confirm your email. We send you a secure link to upload your DNA (raw file or G25 coordinates) and generate your personalised report.

Your name (on the report)

Email (for the paid PDF)

Report language

Discount code (optional)

I accept to receive emails from Explore Your DNA (optional)

Secure checkout after email verification. Your DNA is processed automatically and deleted; no human sees it.

📖 What is raw DNA & G25?

Explore these populations in our free Population Genetics Atlas

No DNA file needed. Each free page shows a population's ancient make-up, its closest modern and ancient neighbours, and ancient DNA from the same country when we have some.

See the East Asia section of the atlas Browse the full atlas (335 populations)

Frequently asked questions

Who is the Yamato report for?

It is built for people with roots in Japan and Korea: mainland Japan, Okinawa and the Ryukyu islands, the Korean peninsula and Jeju, across 5 communities. Japanese-American and Korean-American families, the Nikkei of Brazil and Peru and mixed families can use it too: it reads the Japanese or Korean part of the profile. For Chinese and wider East Asian ancestry the Fenghuang report works better, and for other ancestry the Advanced Ancestry Report.

Does it tell me how much Jomon ancestry I have?

It shows how much your DNA resembles the Jomon hunter-gatherers of the archipelago, era by era. In models like this one, modern mainland Japanese typically show about 10 to 15% Jomon-related ancestry, Okinawans more (about 25 to 30%) and Koreans very little or none. It is a resemblance to Jomon individuals, not a count of ancestors, and "Jomon" and "Yayoi" are names of archaeological periods, not ethnic categories.

Can it tell Japanese from Korean ancestry?

Broadly, yes: mainland Japanese and Korean reference populations are clearly separated in G25, and Okinawans stand further apart. But Jeju Islanders sit between them, very close to mainland Koreans, and the ancient Kofun and Three Kingdoms Korean references are closer to each other than modern Japanese and Koreans are. The report presents the closest community as a closest reference, and it never treats the shared history of the two peoples as a verdict on identity.

Is there an Ainu reference?

No. The Ainu of Hokkaido descend mostly from Jomon and Okhotsk-related ancestry, and the report includes Jomon and Okhotsk references, so a share of them is compatible with Ainu ancestry. But the report shows no Ainu percentage and says so plainly when it matters for your result.

I am Japanese-American, Nikkei or hapa. Will it work for me?

Yes, for the Japanese or Korean part of your DNA. European, African or Amerindian ancestry is shown as outside admixture simply because the report focuses on the Japanese and Korean part; it is just as much part of your heritage. With a large non-Asian share the period models fit less tightly, so check first with the free Report Finder.

How precise is the community match?

Some communities are genetically very close (Korean and Jeju, Japanese and Jeju), others more distinct (Ryukyuan and Korean), so the closest community is a closest reference and never a proven origin or a prefecture call. The Ryukyuan reference is built from early modern samples, as no modern Okinawan average is available. When two or more communities are tied, the report says so.

Not sure it fits me. Can I check first?

Yes. The free Report Finder reads your raw DNA file (or your G25) and tells you honestly whether Yamato is a good match for you, before you spend anything.

Do I need to have taken a DNA test already?

Yes. Upload your raw DNA file from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA or LivingDNA, or paste your G25 coordinates.

How much does it cost and what do I get?

€15. A full PDF report with your ancient regional core %, non-regional outside admixture breakdown, five period-by-period breakdowns, closest modern community reference populations, Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups (if raw file provided), and a narrative interpreted by Claude AI, in English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), Portuguese, Spanish or French.

A DNA report for Japanese and Korean ancestry

Yamato is a G25 ancestry report built specifically for people with roots in Japan and Korea. Upload your raw DNA file from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage or FamilyTreeDNA, pick your community, and we model your genome against the ancient regional core plus non-regional outside admixture, era by era, from the Jomon foragers to the early modern era.

Whether you are Japanese from Honshu, Kyushu or Shikoku, Okinawan with a stronger Jomon-related layer, Korean from the peninsula or Yanbian, or a Jeju Islander, Yamato models the specific genetic layers of your region's history, from the Jomon and Chulmun Korea to the Yayoi rice farmers, the Kofun and Three Kingdoms period, the Okhotsk culture of Hokkaido and early modern Ryukyu.

The report uses the Global25 (G25) system developed by geneticist Davidski, placing your DNA in a 25-dimension genetic space alongside ancient and modern reference populations built from published ancient-DNA studies.

👁 Sample reports

See real Yamato reports

Full example reports, flip through every page: cover, regional core, the five periods, closest communities and the AI narrative.

PDF

🇯🇵 Japanese sample

A mainland Japanese profile: the Jomon share, the Yayoi and Kofun layers from the continent, and Japanese as the closest community.

PDF

🇰🇷 Korean sample

A Korean profile: Chulmun roots, the continental farming ancestry of the peninsula, Three Kingdoms Korea, and the near neighbours Korean and Jeju.