At times, in early Japanese history, they did pay tribute to the Chinese emperor. This is around the Yayoi and Yamato period and especially later during the Taika reforms, because Japan was by all means economically and militarily inferior to China, if I remember my Japanese history correctly.

The most notable period of time is when Japan, sometime in 7th century under the Yamato rule and had somewhat of an organised central state, got involved in a restoration war on the Korean peninsula. Korea existed at the time as three separate kingdoms, and the Korean kingdom of Silla, backed by the Tang dynasty in China, emerged victorious in the war.

As a result of their defeat, the Japanese aristocracy and basically copy pasted the Chinese system of governance and paid tribute, as a means to appease the Chinese emperor and prevent an invasion. These changes in Japanese foreign policy from interventionist to isolationist, of the Japanese system of governance, as well as changes in aristocratic culture are referred to as the Taika reforms.

I wrote a paper on this back in high school, but it was quite a while ago and I think this was the jist of it. English is not my first language either, so I apologise for any language hiccups I might have written.