Yonaguni

Introduction

Yonaguni is Japan's westernmost inhabited island, part of Yonaguni-cho in the Yaeyama district, lying some 120 kilometres west of Ishigaki with a population of around 1,700. At Cape Irizaki a monument and lighthouse mark the westernmost point, and many come for the country's last sunset; strictly speaking the national extreme moved in 2019 to an offshore rock called Tuishi, but the cape is the place you can actually stand. Cape Agarizaki at the eastern end is a hundred-metre cliff rising straight from the sea, topped by open pasture where Yonaguni horses graze and amble across the road; these small native ponies, barely a metre at the shoulder, are the island's most ordinary sight. Off Arakawabana on the south coast lies a vast stepped rock formation found by a local diver in 1986. Its origin is still disputed: the discoverer and one Ryukyu University geologist argue for human working, while most geologists and archaeologists read it as sandstone split along natural joints, and Okinawa Prefecture has never designated it a ruin, which is why the official name is the Yonaguni submarine formation. Boat dives reach it, as does a semi-submersible from Kubura Port. Hammerhead schools gather in January and February, with whale sharks a rare bonus. There is no convenience store, one clinic, supplies can run out when the ferry is cancelled, dive shops and tour boats are largely cash-only, and lodgings are few, so sort all of it out on Ishigaki first.

✨ Highlights

🛈 Practical Info