The distribution of haplogroup Y in populations of the Malay Archipelago contrasts starkly with the absence or extreme rarity of this clade in populations of continental Southeast Asia in a manner reminiscent of haplogroup E. However, the frequency of haplogroup Y fades more smoothly away from its maximum around the Sea of Okhotsk in Northeast Asia, being found in approximately 2% of Koreans[4] and in South Siberian and Central Asian populations with an average frequency of 1%.

In a study published in 2016, mtDNA haplogroup Y1a was observed in an Ulchi sampled in Nizhniy Gavan, Lower Amur, whereas mtDNA haplogroup Y2a1 was observed in an Igorot from Mountain Province, Luzon Island, Philippines (sampled in Singapore) and in a Hawaiian.

Y1a* has been observed in a Nivkh, in a Buryat in Zabaikal, in Mongolia, in a Daur and a Han Chinese in China, in Korea and in Tibet.

Y1a with an additional T16189C mutation is common among the Nivkhs and among several Tungusic peoples (Hezhen in the PRC, Ulchi, Udegey, Even in the basins of the Kolyma and Indigirka rivers).

This phylogenetic tree of haplogroup Y subclades is based on the paper by Mannis van Oven and Manfred Kayser Updated comprehensive phylogenetic tree of global human mitochondrial DNA variation[1] and subsequent published research.