List of islands of Japan
Japan has 6,852 islands. Approximately 430 are inhabited.[1][2] Japan is the largest island country in East Asia and the fourth largest island country in the world.[3]
Main islands
The five main islands of Japan are:[4][5]
- Hokkaido - the northernmost and second largest main island.
- Honshu - the largest and most populous island with the capital Tokyo.
- Kyushu - the third largest main island and nearest to the Asian continent.
- Shikoku - the second smallest main island after Okinawa. It is between Honshu and Kyushu.
- Okinawa - the smallest and southernmost of the main islands.
Hokkaido prefecture
- Kamley Island
- Coco Island (Oshima)
- Ōshima
- Okushiri Island
- Teuri Island
- Rebun Island
- Tornado Island
- Rishiri Island[6]
- Yagishiri Island
- Kamome island
Islands of Honshu in the Sea of Japan
- Oki Islands (Oki Islands)[7]
- ja:Oomijima
- Sado[8]
- Takashima, Shimane
- Tobishima (Yamagata)
- Tsunoshima
- Umashima, Shimane
Islands in Tokyo Bay (artificial islands)
Islands in Osaka Bay (artificial islands)
- Maishima, ja:舞洲
- Yumeshima
- Sakishima, ja:咲洲
- Kansai International Airport
- Kobe Airport
- Port Island
- Rokkō Island
- Minami Ashiyahama, ja:南芦屋浜
- Wakayama Marina City ja:和歌山マリーナシティ
- Nishinomiyahama ja:西宮浜
Islands in Ise Bay
- Chūbu Centrair International Airport (artificial island)
- Kami-shima
- Kashiko Island
- Kozukumi Island
- Mikimoto Pearl Island
- Ōzukumi-jima
Islands in Mutsu Bay
- Ōshima
- Tajima ja:鯛島 (青森県)
Nanpō Islands (Nanpō Shotō)
- Ogasawara Islands (Bonin Islands)[14]
- Kazan Rettō (Volcano Islands)
- Nishinoshima
- Kita Iwo Jima (North Iwo Jima)
- Iwo Jima[14]
- Minami Iwo Jima (South Iwo Jima)
Other Japanese islands
- Minami Torishima (Marcus Island)
- Enoshima
- Okino Torishima (Parece Vela)
Islands around Kyushu
Most of these are located in the East China Sea.
- Amakusa
- Nagashima Island, Kagoshima
- Aoshima
- Gotō Islands[8]
- Danjo Islands (ja:男女群島)
- Hizentorishima (ja:鳥島 (長崎県))
- Hashima[15]
- Hirado[7]
- Iki
- Koshikijima Islands
- Tsushima[8]
Islands around Shikoku
Ryukyu Islands (Nansei-shotō)
Satsunan Islands
The northern half is administratively part of Kagoshima Prefecture and Kyushu.
Ōsumi Islands
The North-Eastern Group:
The North-Western Group:
- Takeshima
- Iōjima
- Shōwa Iōjima
- Kuroshima
Tokara Islands
The Shichi-tō:
Ryukyu Islands (Ryūkyū-shotō)
The Southern Half, Okinawa Prefecture
Okinawa Islands
The Central Group or Ryukyu proper:
- Okinawa Island[7]
- Kumejima
- Iheyajima
- Izenajima
- Agunijima
- Iejima
- Iwo Tori Shima (Iōtorishima)[16]
- Kerama Islands
- Daitō Islands
- Kitadaitojima
- Mimamidaitōjima
- Okidaitōjima
Sakishima Islands
Also known as the Further Isles:
- Miyako Islands
- Yaeyama Islands
- Senkaku Islands (disputed by China and Taiwan)
- Uotsurijima
- Kuba Jima
- Taisho Jima
- Kita Kojima
- Minami Kojima
Seto Inland Sea islands
- Kasaoka Islands
- Takashima Island (Okayama) 高島 (岡山県笠岡市)
- Shiraishi Island
- Kitagi Island, 北木島
- Obishi Island, 大飛島
- Kobi Island, 小飛島
- Manabeshima, 真鍋島
- Mushima Island (Okayama), 六島 (岡山県)
- Shiwaku Islands
- Awaji[8]
- Etajima
- Kurahashi-jima
- Inujima
- Itsukushima (popularly known as "Miyajima")
- Shōdoshima
- Naoshima Islands
- Suō-Ōshima, Yamaguchi
- Himeshima, Ōita
- Aoshima, Ehime
- Hashira Island
- Okamura Island
- Ōshima (Ehime)
- Mukaishima Island, Hiroshima
- Ōmishima Island, Ehime
Islands in lakes
- Daikon-island
- Bentenjima in Lake Tōya
- Bentenjima in Lake Hamana
Other artificial islands
- Chūbu Centrair International Airport
- Dejima[7]
- New Kitakyushu Airport
- Midori No Shima, off Hakodate, ja:緑の島 (artificial)
- Malimpia Okinosu ja:マリンピア沖洲 (artificial)
- Wakaejima ja:和賀江島 (artificial)
- Island City, Fukuoka ja:アイランドシティ (artificial)
Claims but does not control
The Northern Territories
There are four disputed Kuril Islands that are controlled by Russia and claimed by Japan. These islands are called the Chishima Islands.[17]
- Iturup - Etorofu (択捉島, Etorofu-tō)
- Kunashir - Kunashiri (国後島, Kunashiri-tō)
- Shikotan - Shikotan (色丹島, Shikotan-tō)
- Habomai Islands - Habomai (歯舞群島, Habomai guntō)
Others
- Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo/Takeshima) - controlled by South Korea, disputed by Japan.
Former
- South Seas Mandate (1919–1947) - part of the Japanese colonial empire until its defeat in 1945. Formally revoked by the United Nations in 1947.
Largest islands of Japan
These are the 50 largest islands of Japan. It excludes the disputed Kuril islands known as the northern territories.
See also
References
- Look Japan, Vol. 43, Issues 493-504, p. 35; retrieved 2013-3-2.
- "離島とは(島の基礎知識)" (in Japanese). Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Archived from the original (website) on November 13, 2007. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
- "Island Countries Of The World". WorldAtlas.com. Archived from the original on 2017-12-07. Retrieved 2019-08-10.
- "離島とは(島の基礎知識) (what is a remote island?)". MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) (in Japanese). Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. 22 August 2015. Archived from the original (website) on 2007-11-13. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
MILT classification 6,852 islands(main islands: 5 islands, remote islands: 6,847 islands)
- Imperial Japanese Commission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. (1903). Japan in the Beginning of the 20th century (Haruki Yamawaki, editor), p. 2.
- Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Rishiri-tō" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 791.
- Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1962). Sovereign and Subject, p. 332.
- Ponsonby-Fane, p. 331.
- Nussbaum, "Izu Shotō" at p. 412.
- Gotoh, H. et al. (2010). "Infrastructure Maintenance and Disaster Prevention Measures on Isolated Islands: the Case of the Izu Islands near Tokyo" in Island Sustainability (Favro, S., editor), p. 187.
- Nussbaum, p. 412; Ponsonby-Fane, p. 332.
- Nussbaum, "Ōshima" at p. 761.
- Nussbaum, "Torishima" at p. 987.
- Nussbaum, "Ogasawara Guntō" at p. 737.
- Nussbaum, "Hashima" at p. 294.
- Imperial Japanese Commission, p. 3.