Humans had lived in Japan from about 30,000 B.C.. During the Ice Ages, Japan territory was connected to the Korean peninsula and to Siberia, and therefore, early settlers of the Japanese archipelago probably moved into it from the East Asian Siberian mainland during the Palaeolithic period. These communities brought the territory from a stone-age culture into an agricultural and metal-working culture. The very first Japanese kingdom that provided the basis of future Japanese civilization arose in the low-lying plains on the island of Honshu, specifically the Yamato plain in the south—a region that gave its name to the first official name for Japan, Yamato.

By the seventh century, the Yamato court was reorganized along the Chinese model, sponsoring Buddhism, and adopting the Chinese calendar. All of these changes were administered by Prince Shotoku (in Japanese, Shotoku Taishi, 573-621).

His most important contribution was the Seventeen Article Constitution (in Japanese, Kenpo Jushichijo), the constitution that formed the philosophic basis of Japanese government through much of Japanese history. This constitution had basically a Confucian nature, with a certain number of Buddhist elements. It states the Confucian belief that the universe is composed of three realms, Heaven, Man, and Earth, and that the Emperor is placed in authority by the will of Heaven in order to guarantee the welfare of his subjects. Therefore, the "great king" of earlier Japanese history would be replaced by the Tenno, or "Heavenly Emperor."

With the age of the warriors installed in Kamakura on the XIIth century Japan will take distance from the past and in some ways from its Asian background, and will discover its national identity. Taking roots on the peaceful and prosperous time of Heian period (794-1185), new forms of cultural expression took shape and evolved within this age and after: storytelling, poetry, theater, garden aesthetics, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, wabi-sabi aesthetics, architectural styles, etc., which conveyed Japanese unique sensibility. By the medium of these forms, we have access to a culturally autonomous Japan. As many authors will agree, in the warrior age, Japan “finally found itself”.