Lake Biwa, located in central Japan, contains a thick sedimentary sequence deposited in lacustrine or fluvial environments during the Pleistocene.Tephrochronology and magnetostratigraphic analysis of deep-drilling cores from the central basin showed that about 800 m thick sediment has been deposited for the last 1.3 Ma.The uppermost 250 m clay unit has provided important paleoclimate records, which can be correlated to major glacial-interglacial cycles for the last 0.45 Ma.Hence, the Lake Biwa sediment is expected to offer detailed records of Asian monsoon activity from the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene.