"'A monumental work. . . . As an interested historian, I can think of no comparable book, in any area of Japanese studies, that does so much to record the history of a discipline, to define its current practices, and to outline its 'agenda.''"
Mary Elizabeth Berry, University of California-Berkeley

"'Unprecedented in both its scale and the number of informative papers it provides on the subject. It will remain a milestone for many, many years to come.'"
Walter Edwards in The Journal of Japanese Studies

"'No scholar interested in the history and dynamics of human populations and their cultures in East Asia can afford to be without this important new text.'"
John W. Olsen in American Anthropologist

"'A welcome addition to a meager collection of foreign-language writings on Japanese prehistory. . . . interesting, informative, and well worth the time it takes to peruse the five-hundred pages of text.'"
Charles T. Keally in Monumenta Nipponica

"'This will, without doubt, be the book in English on the subject for years to come.'"
Wilhelm G. Solheim II, University of Hawaii-Manoa