An updated and expanded edition of the book, which since its first edition in English has become one of the fundamental books in world Japanese studies. It covers all the most important aspects of the history of Japan - from the primitive and archaic periods (early settlements, the beginning of state unification, the creation of a single state, foreign, domestic policies and culture of the Heian era) and the Middle Ages (rule of military houses, the development of Buddhism), to the early modern era time (the rise of warlords Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Momoyama period, the Tokugawa shogunate, the development of a market economy) and modern Japan (the Meiji Restoration, modernization policies, hostilities during World War II and subsequent occupation). The well-structured narrative pays a lot of attention to Japanese culture - religion, literature, painting, architecture, theater. The book, equipped with black and white illustrations, as well as maps and family trees, is addressed to anyone interested in the “origins of Japanese modernity.”