A large collection of materials on the hoax involving the planting of artifacts on most of the sites in Japan that were claimed to be older than about 35,000 years. This hoax was exposed in November 2000. The materials gathered here begin with the earliest published criticisms of these faked finds to the most recent reports on the re-excavation and re-study of the finds.
Since the "Early and Middle Palaeolithic" sites associated with Fujimura Shin'ichi now have all been removed from the roster of sites in Japan older than 35,000 years, a number of known but largely ignored sites are gaining the attention of archaeologists interested in the first settlement of the Japanese islands. This research project plans to follow this work and to publish comments on it.
Japan's contact with the West is generally thought to have begun in the late 1500s with the arrival of Portugese and other European ships. But, in fact, there was indirect contact with the West before that and as early as the early centuries A.D. This research project plans to only outline the general information for Japan's contacts with the West, mostly as seen through archaeology and mostly found in western Japan, and instead focus more on evidence from eastern Japan. The project also will note relevant and possibly relevant publications and newspaper articles that are found, mostly accidently.