Takeru Akazawa

The Pleistocene—Holocene Transition in Japan and Adjacent Northeast Asia

What we now call Japan was profoundly affected by the Pleistocene—Holocene transition, as rising sea levels transformed what had been a long appendage of the Asian continent into an archipelago, entirely separated from the mainland (Minato et al. 1965). The fossil record from Japan leaves no doubt that it was connected with the continent during much of the Pleistocene, though the active tectonism of the Pacific rim may have breached the connection at times. Archidiskon, Stegodon, Parastegodon, Muntiacus, and Cervus, elements of the Siva-Malayan and Sino-Malayan faunas, are all found in Early Pleistocene deposits of southernjapan. Pinus koraiensis, Picea maximowiczii, Menyanthes trifoliata, and Phellodendron amurensis, all endemic to Korea and northeast China, are known from Early Pleistocene fossil beds in central japan. Continental connections during Middle Pleistocene time are indicated by widespread finds of Paleoloxodon in Japan, and Late Pleistocene connections are shown by Megacervus and Mammuthus primigenius finds in Hokkaido.