Japanese settlement in the Philippines or Japanese Filipino, refers to one of the largest branches of Japanese diaspora having historical contact with and having established themselves in what is now the Philippines. This also refers to Filipino citizens of either pure or mixed Japanese descent currently residing in the country, the latter a result of intermarriages between the Japanese and local populations. History Classical period Settlements After the establishment of a single state within Japan, official trade records began between Japan and the Philippine islands in the Heian and Muromachi period (8th to 12th centuries CE). In the case of the proto-Okinawan chiefdoms, this was much earlier, and ties in with shared migration patterns of Okinawans and Austronesian areas like the Philippines stretching back to the neolithic period. Notable settlements of the period include Bolinao and Agoo along Lingayen Gulf. The Japanese were trading with Philippine kingdoms well before the Spanish period, mainly in pottery and gold. Historical records show that Japanese traders, especially those from Nagasaki, frequently visited the Philippine shores and bartered Japanese goods for such Filipino products as gold and pearls. In the course of time, shipwrecked Japanese sailors, pirate traders, and immigrants settled in the Philippines and intermarried with the early Filipinos. The Wokous who were East Asian pirates mostly consisting of Japanese, even made it into the Philippines before their extermination in the 1600s. Aparri in the Philippines, which is located in Northern Luzon, was established as pirate city-state under the patronage of the Wokou. The area around Aparri was the site of the 1582 Cagayan battles between Japanese pirates and Spanish soldiers. When the Spaniards reached the island of Luzon in 1571, they found Japanese colonies and settlements in Manila and in some parts of the Cagayan Valley, the Cordillera region, Lingayen, Bataan, and Catanduanes Island. The relatively light complexion of the natives of Bontoc and Banaue is probably a result of the early contacts between the Japanese and other islanders from south of Japan and the natives of the Cordillera. Pottery trade Precolonial Philippines had a rich pottery tradition as verified by the finds at Ayub Cave in South Cotabato and other parts of the archipelago. Japanese texts mention trading expeditions to the island of Rusun (Luzon) for the highly prized Rusun and Namban jars. These texts specified that these jars were made in Luzon. , also known as "Luzon jars", were dark-brown