The Yayoi period is an Iron Age era in the history of Japan traditionally dated 300 BCE to CE 300.

It is named after the neighborhood of Tokyo where archaeologists first uncovered artifacts and features from that era.

Distinguishing characteristics of the Yayoi period include the appearance of new pottery styles and the start of an intensive rice agriculture in paddy fields.

The Yayoi culture follows the Jōmon period (14,000–300 BCE) and flourishes in a geographic area from southern Kyūshū to northern Honshū.A new study used the accelerator mass spectrometry method to analyze carbonized remains on pottery and wooden stakes, and discovered that these were dated back to 900–800 BCE, five hundred years earlier than previously believed.