Male line information: Y-group D

All members of Y-group D can trace their Y-chromosomes back to one man who is thought to have lived about 50 thousand years ago, probably somewhere in Asia. This man belonged to a group of hunter-gatherers, whose ancestors had previously migrated from Africa to Asia. Most members of Y-group D trace their recent ancestry through the male line to Asia.

Today, members of Y-group D can be found at low frequencies in most of the peoples of East Asia (less than 5 percent of all males). However, members of Y-group D are common in Tibet, where just over 50 percent of all males belong to this Y-group and Japan, where about 35 percent of males belong to Y-group D. Interestingly, a disproportionately large share of males from the Ainu, an aboriginal population in Japan, belong to Y-group D. It is also found in about 7 percent of males in Korea.

Members of Y-group D are may be the direct male-line descendants of early colonizers of Asia, who were later largely replaced by expanding groups of farmers a few thousand years ago, carrying Y-chromosomes belonging to other Y-groups. This might explain why members of Y-group D are today found in places that may have been less accessible to farmers, such as the mountainous Tibet and the island of Japan.