The
Austronesians in Japan I
Austronesian speakers must
once have occupied all of the island of Taiwan and their
retreat into the montane areas only dates from the 16th century. However, the Yaeyama
islands are extremely close to Taiwan and it is not hard to imagine that it was reached from Taiwan.
The archaeologist Glen Summerhayes reports ‘pre-Japanese’ archaeological
cultures with apparent Austronesian affinities