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Abstract

Early modern humans lived as hunter -gatherers for millennia before agriculture, yet the genetic adaptations of these populations remain a mystery. Here, we investigate selection in the ancient hunter -gatherer -fisher Jomon and contrast pre- and post -agricultural adaptation in the Japanese archipelago. Building on the successful validation of imputation with ancient Asian genomes, we identify selection signatures in the Jomon, particularly robust signals from KITLG variants, which may have influenced dark pigmentation evolution. The Jomon lacks well-known adaptive variants ( EDAR , ADH1B , and ALDH2 ), marking their emergence after the advent of farming in the archipelago. Notably, the EDAR and ADH1B variants were prevalent in the archipelago 1,300 years ago, whereas the ALDH2 variant could have emerged later due to its absence in other ancient genomes. Overall, our study underpins local adaptation unique to the Jomon population, which in turn sheds light on post -farming selection that continues to shape contemporary Asian populations.