Jurassic accretionary complexes mainly composed of Carboniferous to Permian limestone associated with greenstone, Triassic bedded chert, Jurassic siliceous shale and clastic rocks form the basement rocks of Japan. The stratigraphy of these complexes has recently been analysed utilizing radiolarian fossils, resulting in the discovery that Japan comprises a collage of disrupted terranes. International co-operative works reveal that lithologically and biostratigraphically similar terranes are distributed in northeast China (Nadanhada terrane) and Sikhote-Alin, USSR (Khabarovsk terrane). Paleomagnetic studies demonstrate that prior to opening of the Sea of Japan the Japanese Islands were located much closer to the eastern margin of the Asian continent where the Nadanhada and Khaborovsk terranes are now exposed. Features of the Mino terrane in central Japan are characteristic of these terranes which originally formed along the continental margin of East Asia. Seamounts covered by fossiliferous limestone formed during the Carboniferous to Permian at low latitudes. The seamounts drifted towards a continental margin together with upper Paleozoic sediments, Triassic bedded chert and Lower Jurassic siliceous shale which accumulated around them. Upper Paleozoic, Triassic and Lower Jurassic formations were accreted to the eastern continental margin, which was a large tectonic collage developed as the Chinese mainland during the Late Triassic. Enormous amounts of clastic detritus were deposited in sedimentary basins where jumbling and telescoping of pelagic sediments took place in a complicated fashion producing a melange. The provenance of clastic detritus within the Mino terrane is interpreted as a platform on which Permian and Carboniferous calcareous sediments containing diagenetic lutecite and orthoquartzite formations were widespread. These formations covered a Precambrian metamorphic and granodioritic basement similar to that seen in the South China region. Accretion culminated in the earliest Cretaceous and the large disrupted terrane which had developed was transpressed northwards along the eastern margin of the continent. During this period of dispersal the original terrane was sheared, fragmented and separated into many smaller terranes some of which were transported to the Sikhote-Alin region by the Late Cretaceous. The most recent dispersal occurred during the opening of the Sea of Japan, which is closely related to the latest movement of the Pacific plate. Studies of radiolarian micropaleontology and the significance of these fossils to the resolution of the biostratigraphy and the tectonic history of Japan are reviewed. The results of biostratigraphic analyses are discussed in relation to the Mesozoic tectonics of East Asia.