In particular, the frequency of the other northern gene, Gm ab3st (yellow in the Figures), was much higher in the Ryukyu islanders than in the general Japanese populations.
Both Ainu and Miyakojima populations showed a more remarkable northern type, characterized by a higher frequency of one of the northern genes, Gm ag (blue in the Figures), and by a lower frequency of the southern gene, Gm afb1b3 (red in Figures). In other words, the Ainu and the Ryukyu islanders (Miyakojima, Ishigakijima, and Yonakunijima) differed from the general Japanese populations in Gm gene pattern. Heterogeneities, however, were found when the 17 Japanese populations were compared with the Ainu ( χ 2 = 71.2, d.f. = 136, p > 0.999), when compared with each other. These 17 Japanese populations were shown to be genetically homogeneous ( χ 2 = 90.63, d.f. The mean frequencies of the Gm genes observed among the 17 Japanese populations were 0.458 for Gm ag, 0.176 for Gm axg, 0.260 for Gm ab3st, and 0.106 for Gm afb1b3. The Ainu population 12) and the 8 island populations (Sadogashima, Kamishima, Tanegashima, Yakushima, Amamiohshima, Miyakojima, Ishigakijima, and Yonakunijima) were not included for the calculation of the mean frequencies in the general Japanese (17 populations, general Japanese), because the Ainu are indigenous Japanese people and the 8 islanders are isolated and small in number. The results obtained from 26 Japanese populations living in Japan are shown in Table 1 and Fig. 5), 6) Based on further cooperative studies with the Russian labs on the dispersal of Mongoloids in Asia, 7) we confirmed the highest frequencies of the Gm ab3st gene among the 3 Buryat populations in the Baikal area and the geno-cline of Gm ab3st was shown to be in good order, leading to the conclusion that our hypothesis has validtiy.Ĭharacteristics of the Japanese population. During the course of studying these samples, with our aim fixed on Gm genes that characterize Mongoloid populations, we obtained an unexpected result allowing us to approach the roots of Japanese people. When I was invited to the USSR in 1983, about 1,000 serum samples collected from Mongoloid minorities in the Baikal area were given to me for study of Gm by Professor Rychkov of the then Soviet Scientific Academy. We found 2 novel Gm (s) and Gm (t) types in 1966, 4) which were then designated as the Gm ab3st gene and further studies of the geographical distribution of this gene suggested to us that it is a northern Mongoloid marker. 3) stated that the Gm data contributed much to clarifying genetic differentiation of the populations and that Gm was thus applicable to the study of the origin and migration of populations, or to evaluate the extent of racial admixture within populations. Based on the study of Gm in Hungarian Gypsy populations, van Loghem et al. 2) no individual system except the genetic markers of immunoglobulin G (allotype immunoglobulin G marker Gm) was found to characterize human populations. The reason is based on the fact that the blood group system is inherited as a Mendelian trait and that the gene frequencies vary among different populations. Since then, polymorphic markers harbored in macromolecules such as proteins and glycoconjugates including blood group systems have been used for this purpose. In 1959, the ABO blood group system was first applied to human classification. 1) All of these theories are, however, dependent on morphometrical differences between bones, which are well known to be easily subject to nutrition. The most accepted theory at present is the “dual structure model” by Hanihara.
Various theories as to the origin of the Japanese race have been advanced on the basis of the morphology of excavated bones.