>>509674055
The northern parts of Japan weren't part of the Japanese empire until the late 19th century. They physically couldn't settle there because rice farming before GMO couldn't handle even the slightest bit of cold and like 85% of the Japanese population was subsistence farmers. So no emphatically in every single criteria of race they aren't white, but the Ainu/Kuriles may be related to Tartars. Also Kyushu used to be populated by Austro-papuans like in picrel, even as late as the 8th century, they were called the Hayato people.

>>508898970
The Ainu to the north were never integrated into Japan until the 20th century. Hokkaido was entirely separate. The highest % of 'Jomon' genetics in Japan are in the south, specifically in Okinawa. It's almost identical to austro-papuans, in fact all of Kyushu was populated by Hayate people for most of their history to the point where the oldest name for Japan described these people first. They were the first to send ambassadors to Tang. The Ezo/Ainu were proto-siberians that were constantly at war with the Japanese who for most of history only populated the southern half of Honshu because older forms of rice farming could not tolerate even the slightest bit of cold.