History of Japanese

Japanese have lived in the islands of Japanese for about 10,000 years.
I'll tell you about history of Japanese briefly.

 Ancient people made groups of twenty or thirty and lived together, hunting elephants or deers and picking shellfish or nuts. Their ranks were equal without distinction between the rich and the poor.
 About 3,000 years ago, people began to farm rice. Difference in society between the rich and the poor has arisen, so people's ranks were not equal and leaders emerged from groups. Leaders ruled their group and its surrounding groups, made nations.
 Leaders were called Gouzoku (powerful family) in the 4th century. The most powerful Gouzoku was Mikado. Mikado and some strong nobles governed people for 700 years from 5th century to 12th century.    
 In the early of 7th century, Prince Shōtoku who was Mikado's nephew succeeded in establishing a centralized government during his reign. The first permanent capital was founded at Nara in the early of 8th century, which became a center of Buddhist art, religion and culture. About 80 years later, Emperor Kammu shifted his capital from Nara to Heian-kyō.
 In the middle of 10th,  the samurai emerged, especially Kammu Heishi(Taira clan) and Seiwa Genji(Minamoto clan) were powerful clans. In the end of 12th century, Minamoto no Yoritomo who is the leader of Seiwa Genji won Kammu Heishi and established the supremacy of the samurai caste and the first bakufu (shogunate) at Kamakura.
 After the Kamakura shogunate was overthrown, Ashikaga clan established the shogunate at Muromachi. But after Ashikaga Yoshimitsu who is 3rd shogun died, the power of Muromachi shogunate became weak. So local daimyō, each with his own force of samurai, fought for supremacy each other. Those who won this fight were Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu. In the early of 17th century, Tokugawa Ieyasu established the last shogunate at Edo(Tokyo). The Edo Period had lasted for 250 years peaceably.
 In the middle of 19th century, the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown and the supremacy of the samurai caste was lost by those seeking to return political power to the Mikado. They established new government at Tokyo. They attempted to make Japan very strong like the U.S. or the U.K.  Itō Hirobumi who is one of them established the constitution. Japan had the great force of warriors in the end of 19th century.
 After Pacific War was ended, Japan was transformed into a peaceful and democratic nation. 10 years later, it enjoyed very high economic growth rates, and became a world economic powerhouse, especially in automobiles and electronics. Nowadays, economic stagnation is a major issue, with an earthquake and tsunami in 2011 causing massive economic dislocations.


The above explanation is compact, so if you want to know history of Japanese, please click the below URL.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e641.html

I will introduce you to each of 8 persons whose name are written by boldface from the next time.