Concentrated efforts by the imperial court to record its history produced the first works of Japanese literature during the Nara period.

By the mid-eighth century, shōen (landed estates), one of the most important economic institutions in prehistoric Japan, began to rise as a result of the search for a more manageable form of landholding.

As a major outbreak of smallpox spread from Kyūshū in 735, all four brothers died two years later, resulting in temporary reduction in the Fujiwara dominance.

Although the rebellion was defeated, there is no doubt that the emperor was shocked and frightened by these events, and he moved the palace three times in only five years from 740, until he eventually returned to Nara.

In the late Nara period, financial burdens on the state increased, and the court began dismissing nonessential officials.

In 792 universal conscription was abandoned, and district heads were allowed to establish private militia forces for local police work.

Buddhism was introduced by Baekje in the sixth century but had a mixed reception until the Nara period, when it was heartily embraced by Emperor Shōmu.

Shōmu and his Fujiwara consort were fervent Buddhists and actively promoted the spread of Buddhism, making it the "guardian of the state" and a way of strengthening Japanese institutions.

When the retired empress came to favor a Buddhist faith healer named Dōkyō, Nakamaro rose up in arms in 764 but was quickly crushed.

Her actions shocked Nara society and led to the exclusion of women from imperial succession and the removal of Buddhist priests from positions of political authority.

Many of the Japanese artworks and imported treasures from other countries during the era of Emperors Shōmu and Shōtoku are archived in Shōsō-in of Tōdai-ji temple.

Imported treasures show the cultural influences of Silk Road areas, including China, Korea, India, and the Islamic empire.

These are records written in the reverse side of the sutra or in the wrapping of imported items that survived as a result of reusing wasted official documents.

A local Chinese government in the Lower Yangzi Valley sent a mission to Japan to return Japanese envoys who entered China through Balhae.

The Hayato people (隼人) in southern Kyushu frequently resisted rule by the imperial dynasty during the Nara period.

Balhae sent its first mission in 728 to Nara, which welcomed them as the successor state to Goguryeo, with which Japan had been allied until Silla unified the Three Kingdoms of Korea.