The Yamato people (大和民族, Yamato minzoku, literally "Yamato ethnicity") or the Wajin (和人, Wajin, literally "Wa people") are an East Asian ethnic group and a nation inhabiting the Japanese archipelago, descended partly from the indigenous Jōmon people and partly from migrants from mainland Asia who arrived on the archipelago circa 300 BCE–300 CE. The term came to be used around the late 19th century to distinguish the settlers of mainland Japan from minority ethnic groups inhabiting the peripheral areas of the Japanese empire, such as the Ainu, Ryukyuans, Nivkh, Oroks, as well as Koreans, Han-Chinese, Taiwanese aborigines, and Micronesian peoples who were incorporated into the Empire of Japan in the early 20th century. Clan leaders also elevated their own belief system that featured ancestor