Affinity Bloc: East Asian Peoples

Overview: The Japanese are a unique blending of several racial streams that converged on the Japanese archipelago since 500 BC. Their civilization owes much to the influence of the Chinese, from whom they learned to write in the 5th Century. In addition to the large Japanese ethnic majority, this people cluster includes a number of smaller people groups whose origins lie in one or more of the 6,852 islands that comprise the archipelago.

  -- Patrick Johnstone, The Future of the Global Church, p. 184

Peoples within this cluster: Amami-Oshima, Northern; Amami-Oshima, Southern; Japanese; Kikai; Miyako; Nikkei, Brazilian; Nikkei, Latin American; Oki-No-Erabu; Okinawan, Central; Toku-No-Shima; Yaeyama; Yonaguni; Yoron

Countries where they are found: Argentina; Australia; Bolivia; Brazil; Canada; China; Dominican Republic; France; Germany; Japan; Malaysia; Micronesia; New Zealand; Panama; Peru; Portugal; Singapore; Spain; Taiwan; United States