Yamato people

Yamato people (大和民族, Yamato minzoku, also in older literature Yamato race) and Wajin (和人, Wajin, literally "Wa people") are names for the dominant native ethnic group of Japan.

It is a term that came to be used around the late 19th century to distinguish the settlers of mainland Japan from other minority ethnic groups who have settled the peripheral areas of Japan, such as the Ainu, Ryukyuans, Nivkh, Oroks, as well as Koreans, Taiwanese, and Taiwanese aborigines who were incorporated into the Empire of Japan in the early 20th century. The name was applied to the Imperial House of Japan or "Yamato Court" that existed in Japan in the 4th century, and was originally the name of the region where the Yamato people first settled in Yamato Province (modern-day Nara Prefecture). Generations of Japanese historians, linguists, and archeologists have debated whether the word is related to the earlier Yamatai (邪馬台). The Yamato clan set up Japan's first and only dynasty.

Etymology