Archaeologists from China and Japan said that a technique used to make stone tools in north China later made its way to Japan in what might've been the earliest exchange between the two cultures some 20,000 years ago.
     A joint research project conducted by the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Nara Research Institute for Cultural Property found considerable similarities in stone tools unearthed in China, the Republic of Korea and Japan, suggesting a trans-regional spread of the technique used to create them.
     The technique, which was used in north China between 20,000 and 25,000 years ago, might've spread to Japan's Kyushu Island through the Korean Peninsula, as the same technique was used in that region as well, said Li Zhanyang, a researcher from the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. The discovery will shed new light on early migration and cultural exchanges between the Chinese mainland, the Republic of Korea and Japan, Li added.

Edited from Xinhuanet.com (3 August 2011)