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Japan is an island country located in Eastern Asia and boasts heavy mainland Asian influence through Buddhism and historically Confucianism along with many other (east) Asian countries. See below a summary of Japanese history.

Ancient

During the Jōmon Period which lasted from 14,000-300 BCE Japan's society existed out of hunter-gatherers who were heavy into pottery before it was succeeded by the Yayoi Period (300 BCE–300 CE) which introduced rice farming, metal tools and social hierarchy brought over from Korea and China. During the Kofun Period (300–710 CE) actual clans started to take shape and claim territory along with the birth of early Shinto beliefs. (it already existed, it just developed further)

Classical

Japan saw its first permanent capital (Nara) since the Imperial Japanese family sought to centralize the heavily decentralized Japan with various semi-independent clans during the Nara Period (710–794) which also saw the coming of Buddhism to Japan and various mythical-historical texts. After the Nara Period came the Heian Period (794–1185) where the capital was moved to Kyoto, a decline in centralized authority and a strong aristocratic culture.

Feudal

In the Kamakura Period (1185–1333) the first Shogunate (military government) was established with the Samurai class becoming more powerful and two failed Mongol invasions of 1274 and 1281. The Muromachi Period (1336–1573) saw a new shogunate, the Ashikaga with it eventually leading to the Ōnin War (civil wars) and evolving into Sengoku Period (various warlord rump states at war with one another). Japan, with the help of certain daimyo (warlords) like Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu once again unified during the new Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573–1603).

Modern

During the Edo Period (1603–1868) the Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo (now Tokyo) and established a state of isolationism (sakoku), cultural growth (kabuki) and enforced a strict hierarchy in society, at the top standing the samurai followed by farmers, artisans (craftsmen) and lastly merchants. Western pressure (largely the U.S.) forced Japan to open its trade up and led to the eventual downfall of the shogunate.

The Meiji Period (1868–1912) saw Japan rapidly industralizing and westerning aswell as breaking Western stereotypes of Japan being a backwards Asiatic kingdom by winning a war against Imperial Russia, a European Empire. Japan during the short Taishō (1912–1926) period saw (partial) democracy but it quickly turned into militarism/faciscm in Early Shōwa (1926–1945). Japan joined the Axis Powers and commited various war crimes (Rape of Nanjing, Korean comfort women), particularly against China and Korea respectively during WW2 before being forced into surrender after the two atomic bomb droppings on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the U.S.

Japan was briefly occupied by the U.S. (1945–52) which saw heavy U.S. investment and a rapid rebuilding of the country, a transition to democracy and an economic miracle lasting from the 1960s-1980s.