The Oldest Surviving Chronicle in Japan is The Kojiki Lit. Record of Ancient Things

The Kojiki lit. “Record of ancient things” (古事記), is a book of Japanese mythology recorded in regard to the origin of the four main islands of Japan and the Kami, and is the oldest surviving chronicle in Japan, dating in its completion in 712 A.D., composed in the Japanese Imperial Court in the ancient capital of Nara, by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Gemmei (元明天皇, gemmei-tenno).

In regard to those directly responsible for its compilation, Ō no Yasumaro (太 安万侶) was a Japanese nobleman, bureaucrat, and chronicler in the imperial court, and possibly could have been the son of Ō no Honji (多 品治), a participant in the Jinshin War of 672. His most well-known accomplishment was compiling and editing the Kojiki with the assistance of Hieda no Are (稗田 阿礼), who was also primarily known for being instrumental to the compilation of the Japanese text in 712. While birth and date are unknown, Are was active during the late 7th and early 8th century, with very little being known about Are's background. A passage in the Seikyūki (西宮記) suggests that Are belongs to the Sarume-no-kimi family, who trace their ancestry back to the goddess Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto (天鈿女命). Scholars such as Kunio Yanagita and Saigō Nobutsuna theorize that Are was a woman, despite being given the title of toneri (舎人), which is typically a male title, reasoning that since members of the Sarume-no-kimi family are renowned as shrine maidens to the court, a female institution, along with an additional number of passages within the Kojiki appearing to have been written by a woman. This, however, can be explained by the fact that men in the imperial court would often adopt a feminine writing style. Emperor Temmu (天武天皇 temmu-tenno) first set about to correct inconsisten...

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... (1730-1801) of the 18th century did not have literary criteria in the foreground of his studies. He was seeking the origin of the pure Japanese spirit, which had not been contaminated yet by various elements of continental civilization. Motoori Norinaga, in his monumental commentaries titled the Kojikiden, brought the Kojiki back from the shadows of history. He explicated it so intelligibly and made it into something for the Japanese to be proud of. But he did not seek literary excitement in the Kojiki. Neither did he seek examples of poetry in the Kojiki or the Nihon Shoki in both of which rustic songs sometimes appear. For him, the Kojiki was something that spoke the language of the gods and provided the truth about the Age of the Gods and beginnings of the Human Age. His text for the Kojiki is on the level of faith. His work was of the order of mystic erudition.