Abstract
The cranial measurements of the Ryukyu Islanders (males) were examined by multivariate analysis. There is a clear separation between the Okinawa and Amami districts among the Ryukyu populations. As a result of a comparison among 8 populations in the Ryukyu Islands and Honshu-Kyushu, it is clear that the Ryukyu Islanders are a local group of the Japanese people. Comparison among the Ryukyu people, Honshu-Kyushu Japanese and their surrounding populations clarified that the populations closest to the Ryukyu people are the Honshu-Kyushu Japanese followed by some of the southern people and that the population closest to the Ainu is the Ryukyu Islanders among the populations compared here. The Ryukyu people are almost equally close to the modern, proto-historic and prehistoric Japanese and the Ainu, and are comparatively far from Korean.
