Japanese pre-history

Paleolithic

 
 
Polished stone axes, excavated at Hinatabayashi B site, Shinano city, Nagano. Pre-Jōmon (Paleolithic) period, 30,000 BC. Tokyo National Museum.
Main article: Japanese Paleolithic
The Japanese Paleolithic (旧石器時代 kyū-sekki-jidai?) covers a period starting from around 100,000 to 30,000 BC, when the earliest stone tool implements have been found, and ending around 12,000 BC, at the end of the last ice age, corresponding with the beginning of the Mesolithic Jōmon period. A start date of around 35,000 BC is most generally accepted.[2] The Japanese archipelago was disconnected from the continent after the last ice age, around 11,000 BC. After a hoax by an amateur researcher, Shinichi Fujimura, had been exposed [3], the Lower and Middle Paleolithic evidence reported by Fujimura and his associates has been rejected after thorough reinvestigation. Only some Upper Paleolithic evidence not associated with Fujimura can be considered well established.[citation needed]