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The Ryukyu Islands (琉球諸島, Ryūkyū-shotō), is the generic name of the islands that once was belonged to the Kingdom of Ryukyu, and is the southern part of the Ryukyu Arc (琉球弧, Ryūkyū-ko) which is a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan. The Ryukyu Islands (琉球諸島, Ryūkyū-shotō) includes the Amami, Okinawa, Miyako and Yaeyama Islands, with Yonaguni the southernmost. The largest of the islands is Okinawa.

The islands have a subtropical climate with mild winters and hot summers. Precipitation is very high, and is affected by the rainy season and typhoons. Except the outlying Daitō Islands, the island chain has two major geologic boundaries, the Tokara Strait between the Tokara and Amami Islands, and the Kerama Gap between the Okinawa and Miyako Islands. The islands beyond the Tokara Strait are characterized by their coral reefs.

The Ōsumi and Tokara Islands, the northernmost of the islands, fall under the cultural sphere of the Kyushu region of Japan; the people are ethnically Japanese and speak a variation of the Kagoshima dialect of Japanese. The Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama Islands have a native population collectively called the Ryukyuans, named after the former Ryūkyū Kingdom that ruled them. The varied Ryukyuan languages are traditionally spoken on these islands, and each island has its own distinct language. In modern times, the Japanese language is the primary language of the islands, with the Okinawan Japanese dialect prevalent spoken. The outlying Daitō Islands were uninhabited until the Meiji period, when their development was started mainly by people from the Izu Islands south of Tokyo, with the people there speaking a Hachijo dialect.

Administratively, the islands are divided into Kagoshima Prefecture in the north and Okinawa Prefecture in the south, with the divide between the Amami and Okinawa Islands, with the Daitō Islands part of Okinawa Prefecture. The northern (Kagoshima) islands are collectively called the Satsunan Islands, while the southern part of the chain (Okinawa Prefecture) are called the Ryukyu Islands in Japanese.

From about 1829 until the mid-20th century, the islands were spelled Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin pronunciation Liuqiu and the Okinawan form Ruuchuu (ルーチュー).

Island subgrouping

The Ryukyus are commonly divided into two or three primary groups:

• either administratively, with the Northern Ryukyus being the islands in Kagoshima Prefecture (known in Japanese as the "Satsunan Islands") and the Southern Ryukyus being the islands in Okinawa Prefecture (known in Japanese as the "Ryukyu Islands"),
• or geologically, with the islands north of the Tokara Strait (Ōsumi and Tokara) being the Northern Ryukyus, those between the Tokara Strait and Kerama Gap (Amami and Okinawa) being the Central Ryukyus, and those south of the Kerama Gap (Miyako and Yaeyama) being the Southern Ryukyus.

Following are the grouping and names used by the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the Japan Coast Guard. The islands are listed from north to south where possible.

• Amami Islands (奄美群島, Amami-guntō): Amami Ōshima, Kikaijima, Kakeromajima, Yoroshima, Ukeshima, Tokunoshima, Okinoerabujima, Yoronjima
• Okinawa Islands (沖縄諸島, Okinawa-shotō): Okinawa Island, Kume, Iheya, Izena, Aguni, Ie (Iejima), Iwo Tori Shima (Iōtorishima)
  • Kerama Islands (慶良間諸島, Kerama-shotō): Tokashiki, Zamami, Aka, Geruma
• Miyako Islands (宮古列島, Miyako-rettō): Miyakojima, Ikema, Ōgami, Irabu, Shimoji, Kurima, Minna, Tarama
• Yaeyama Islands (八重山列島, Yaeyama-rettō): Iriomote, Ishigaki, Taketomi, Kohama, Kuroshima, Aragusuku, Hatoma, Yubujima, Hateruma, Yonaguni

The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, another government organization that is responsible for standardization of place names, disagrees with the Japan Coast Guard over some names and their extent, but the two are working on standardization. They agreed on February 15, 2010, to use Amami-guntō (奄美群島) for the Amami Islands; prior to that, Amami-shotō (奄美諸島) had also been used.

Names and extents

In English, the island chain as a whole is called "Ryukyu". In Japanese, however, terminology is more complicated.

Nansei Islands

Nansei shotō (南西諸島) is the official name for the whole island chain in Japanese. Japan has used the name on nautical charts since 1907. Based on the Japanese charts, the international chart series uses Nansei Shoto.

Nansei literally means 'southwest', the direction of the island chain from mainland Japan. Some humanities scholars prefer the uncommon term Ryūkyū-ko (琉球弧, "Ryukyu Arc") for the entire island chain. In geology, however, the Ryukyu Arc includes subsurface structures such as the Okinawa Trough and extends to Kyushu.

During the American occupation of Amami, the Japanese government objected to them being included under the name "Ryukyu" in English, because they worried that this might mean that the return of the Amami Islands to Japanese control would be delayed until the return of Okinawa. However, the American occupational government on Amami continued to called the "Provisional Government for the Northern Ryukyu Islands" in English, though it was translated as Rinji Hokubu Nansei-shotō Seichō (臨時北部南西諸島政庁, Provisonal Government for the Northern Nansei Islands) in Japanese.

Ryukyu

The name of Ryūkyū is strongly associated with the Ryūkyū Kingdom, a highly centralized kingdom that originated from the Okinawa Islands and subjected the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands, and the Amami Islands for some time. The name is generally considered outdated in Japanese although some entities of Okinawa still bear the name, such as the local national university.

In geography, the Ryukyu Islands (琉球諸島, Ryūkyū-shotō) cover the Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama Islands. Some variant definitions include the Amami Islands and/or the Daitō Islands. In contrast, the northern half of the island chain is referred to as the Satsunan ("South of Satsuma") Islands. In natural science, Ryukyu sometimes refers to the entire island chain.

Humanities scholars generally agree that the Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama Islands share much cultural heritage, though they are characterized by a great degree of internal diversity as well. There is, however, no good name for the group. The native population do not have their own name, since they do not recognize themselves as a group this size. Ryukyu is the principal candidate because it roughly corresponds to the maximum extent of the Ryūkyū Kingdom. However, it is not necessarily considered neutral by the people of Amami, Miyako, and Yaeyama, who were marginalized under the Okinawa-centered kingdom. The Ōsumi and Tokara Islands are not included because they are culturally part of Kyushu. There is a high degree of confusion in use of Ryukyu in English literature. For example, Encyclopedia Britannica equates the Ryukyu Islands with Japanese Ryūkyū-shotō or Nansei-shotō in the definition but limits its scope to the Amami, Okinawa and Sakishima (Miyako and Yaeyama) in the content.

Historical usage

Ryūkyū is an exonym and is not a self-designation. The word first appeared in the Book of Sui (636). Its obscure description of Liuqiu (流求) is the source of a never-ending scholarly debate over what was referred to by the name, Taiwan, Okinawa or both. Nevertheless the Book of Sui shaped perceptions of Ryūkyū for a long time. Ryūkyū was considered a land of cannibals and aroused a feeling of dread among surrounding people, from Buddhist monk Enchin, who travelled to Tang China in 858, to an informant of the Hyōtō Ryūkyū-koku ki, who travelled to Song China in 1243. Later, some Chinese sources used Great Ryukyu (大琉球, Da Liuqiu) for Okinawa and Lesser Ryukyu (小琉球, Xiao Liuqiu) for Taiwan. Although some dialectologists managed to find Okinawan forms of "Ryūkyū", Ruuchuu (ルーチュー) or Duuchuu (ドゥーチュー) in the Shuri-Naha dialect and Ruuchuu (ルーちュー) in the Nakijin dialect, it was not used among Okinawans.

In English, until well into the late 19th century (Meiji period in Japan), the word "Ryukyu" was spelled Luchu, Loo-choo, or Lewchew. These spellings were based on the Chinese pronunciation of the characters for "Ryukyu", which in Mandarin is Liúqiú, as well as the Okinawan language's form of Ruuchuu.

Okinawa

Okinawa (沖縄) is originally a native name for the largest island in the island chain. The name came to be used for the prefecture that covers the southern half of the island chain. It never extends to Kagoshima Prefecture. Outside the prefecture, Okinawa Prefecture is simply referred to as Okinawa. In Okinawa Prefecture, however, Okinawa is strongly associated with Okinawa Island, and in this sense, Okinawa excludes the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands. People in the Yaeyama Islands would use the expression "go to Okinawa" when they visit Okinawa Island. People from the Amami Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture would also oppose being included in Okinawa.

Some scholars feel the need to group the Amami and Okinawa Islands because Amami is closer to Okinawa in some respects, for example from a linguistic point of view, than Miyako and Yaeyama. They sometimes use "Amami–Okinawa." They have no good single-word term for the group since the native population had not felt the need for such a concept.

Southern Islands

The folklorist Kunio Yanagita and his followers used Nantō (南島, "Southern Islands"). This term was originally used by the imperial court of Ancient Japan. Yanagita hypothesized that the southern islands was the origin of the Japanese people and preserved many elements that were subsequently lost in Japan. The term has fallen out of favor today.

History

Ancient Japan's Southern Islands

The island chain appeared in written history as Japan's Southern Islands (南島, Minamishima). The first record of the Southern Islands is an article of 618 in the Nihonshoki (720) which states that people of Yaku (掖玖,夜勾) followed the emperor's virtue. In 629 the imperial court dispatched an expedition to Yaku. Yaku in historical sources was not limited to modern-day Yakushima but seems to have covered a broader area of the island chain. In 657, several persons from Tokara (都貨邏, possibly Dvaravati) arrived at Kyushu, reporting that they had first drifted to Amami Island (海見島, Amamijima), which is the first attested use of Amami.

Articles of the late 7th century give a closer look at the southern islands. In 677, the imperial court gave a banquet to people from Tane Island (多禰島, Tanejima). In 679 the imperial court sent a mission to Tane Island. The mission carried some peoples from the southern islands who were described as the peoples of Tane, Yaku, and Amami (阿麻弥) in the article of 682. According to the Shoku Nihongi (797), the imperial court dispatched armed officers in 698 to explore the southern islands. As a result, people of Tane, Yaku, Amami and Dokan visited the capital to pay tribute in the next year. Historians identify Dokan as Tokunoshima of the Amami Islands. An article of 714 reports that an investigative team returned to the capital, together with people of Amami, Shigaki (信覚), and Kumi (球美) among others. Shigaki should be Ishigaki Island of the Yaeyama Islands. Some identify Kumi as Iriomote Island of the Yaeyama Islands because Komi is an older name for Iriomote. Others consider that Kumi corresponded to Kume Island of the Okinawa Islands. Around this time "Southern Islands" replaced Yaku as a collective name for the southern islands.

In the early 8th century the northern end of the island chain was formally incorporated into the Japanese administrative system. After a rebellion was crushed, Tane Province was established around 702. Tane Province consisted of four districts and covered Tanegashima and Yakushima. Although the tiny province faced financial difficulties from the very beginning, it was maintained until 824 when it was merged into Ōsumi Province.

Ancient Japan's commitment to the southern islands is attributed to ideological and strategic factors. Japan applied to herself the Chinese ideology of emperorship that required "barbarian people" who longed for the great virtue of the emperor. Thus Japan treated people on its periphery as "barbarians," i.e., the Emishi to the east and the Hayato and the Southern Islanders to the south. The imperial court brought some of them to the capital to serve the emperor. The New Book of Tang (1060) states at the end of the chapter of Japan that there were three little princes of Yaku (邪古), Haya (波邪), and Tane (多尼). This statement should have based on a report by Japanese envoys in the early 8th century who would have claimed the Japanese emperor's virtue. At the site of Dazaifu, the administrative center of Kyushu, two wooden tags dated in the early 8th century were unearthed in 1984, which read "Amami Island" (㭺美嶋, Amamijima) and "Iran Island" (伊藍嶋, Iran no Shima) respectively. The latter seems to correspond to Okinoerabu Island. These tags might have been attached to "red woods", which, according to the Engishiki (927), Dazaifu was to offer when they were obtained from the southern islands.

The southern islands had strategic importance for Japan because they were on one of the three major routes used by Japanese missions to Tang China (630–840). The 702 mission seems the first one who successfully switched from the earlier route via Korea to the southern island route. Thereafter the missions of 714, 733 and 752 probably took the route. In 754 the Chinese monk Jianzhen managed to reach Japan. His biography Tō Daiwajō Tōseiden (779) makes reference to Akonaha (阿児奈波) on the route, which may refer to modern-day Okinawa Island. An article of 754 states that the government repaired mileposts that had originally been set in the southern islands in 735. However, the missions from 777 onward chose another route that directly connected Kyūshū to China. Thereafter the central government lost its interest in the southern islands.

Kikaigashima and Iōgashima

The southern islands reappeared in written history at the end of the 10th century. According to the Nihongi ryaku (c. 11th–12th centuries), Dazaifu, the administrative center of Kyushu, reported that the Nanban (southern barbarians) pirates, who were identified as Amami islanders by the Shōyūki (982–1032 for the extant portion), pillaged a wide area of Kyūshū in 997. In response, Dazaifu ordered "Kika Island" (貴駕島, Kikashima) to arrest the Nanban. This is the first attested use of Kikaigashima, which is often used in subsequent sources.

The series of reports suggest that there were groups of people with advanced sailing technology in Amami and that Dazaifu had a stronghold in Kikai Island. In fact, historians hypothesize that the Amami Islands were incorporated into a trade network that connected it to Kyūshū, Song China and Goryeo. In fact, the Shōyūki recorded that in 1020s local governors of southern Kyūshū presented to the author, a court aristocrat, local specialties of the southern islands including the Chinese fan palm, red woods and shells of Green Turban Shell. The Shinsarugakuki, a fiction written in the mid-11th century, introduced a merchant named Hachirō-mauto, who traveled all the way to the land of the Fushū in the east and to Kika Island (貴賀之島, Kikanoshima) in the west. The goods he obtained from the southern islands included shells of Green Turban Shell and sulfur. The Shinsarugakuki was not mere fiction; the Golden Hall of Chūson-ji (c. 1124) in northeastern Japan was decorated with tens of thousands of green turban shells.

Some articles of 1187 of the Azuma Kagami state that Ata Tadakage of Satsuma Province fled to Kikai Island (貴海島, Kikaishima) sometime around 1160. The Azuma Kagami also states that in 1188 Minamoto no Yoritomo, who soon became the shogun, dispatched troops to pacify Kikai Island (貴賀井島 (Kikaishima). It was noted that the imperial court objected the military expedition claiming that it was beyond Japan's administration. The Tale of the Heike (13th century) depicted Kikai Island (鬼界島, Kikaishima), where Shunkan, Taira no Yasuyori, and Fujiwara no Naritsune were exiled following the Shishigatani Incident of 1177. The island depicted, characterized by sulfur, is identified as Iōjima of the Ōsumi Islands, which is part of Kikai Caldera. Since China's invention of gunpowder made sulfur Japan's major export, Sulfur Island or Iōgashima became another representative of the southern islands. It is noted by scholars that the character representing the first syllable of Kikai changed from ki (貴, noble) to ki (鬼, ogre) from the end of the 12th century to the early 13th century.

The literature-based theory that Kikai Island was Japan's trade center of the southern islands is supported by the discovery of the Gusuku Site Complex in 2006. The group of archaeological sites on the plateau of Kikai Island is one of the largest sites of the era. It lasted from 9th to 13th centuries and at its height from the second half of the 11th to the first half of the 12th century. It was characterized by a near-total absence of the native Kaneku Type pottery, which prevailed in coastal communities. What were found instead were goods imported from mainland Japan, China and Korea. Also found was the Kamuiyaki (Kamïyaki) pottery, which was produced in Tokunoshima from the 11th to 14th centuries. The skewed distribution of Kamuiyaki peaked at Kikai and Tokunoshima suggests that the purpose of Kamuiyaki production was to serve it to Kikai.

Shimazu Estate and Kamakura shogunate's expansion

Around the Hōen era (1135–1141), Tanegashima became part of Shimazu Estate on southern Kyūshū. The Shimazu Estate was said to have established at Shimazu, Hyūga Province in 1020s and dedicated to Kanpaku Fujiwara no Yorimichi. In the 12th century, Shimazu Estate expanded to a large portion of Satsuma and Ōsumi Provinces including Tanegashima.

Koremune no Tadahisa, a retainer of the Fujiwara family, was appointed as a steward of Shimazu Estate in 1185. He was then named shugo of Satsuma and Ōsumi (and later Hyūga) Provinces by first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo in 1197. He became the founder of the Shimazu clan. Tadahisa lost power when his powerful relative Hiki Yoshikazu was overthrown in 1203. He lost the positions of shugo and jitō and only regained the posts of shugo of Satsuma Province and jitō of the Satsuma portion of Shimazu Estate. The shugo of Ōsumi Province and jitō of the Ōsumi portion of Shimazu Estate, both of which controlled Tanegashima, were succeeded by the Hōjō clan (especially its Nagoe branch). The Nagoe family sent the Higo clan to rule Ōsumi. A branch family of the Higo clan settled in Tanegashima and became the Tanegashima clan.

The islands other than Tanegashima were grouped as the Twelve Islands and treated as part of Kawanabe District, Satsuma Province. The Twelve Islands were subdivided into the Near Five (口五島/端五島, Kuchigoshima/Hajigoshima) and the Remote Seven (奥七島, Okunanashima). The Near Five consisted of the Ōsumi Islands except Tanegashima while the Remote Seven corresponded to the Tokara Islands. After the Jōkyū War in 1221, the jitō of Kawanabe District was assumed by the Hōjō Tokusō family. The Tokusō family let its retainer Chikama clan rule Kawanabe District. In 1306, Chikama Tokiie created a set of inheritance documents that made reference to various southern islands. The islands mentioned were not limited to the Twelve but included Amami Ōshima, Kikai Island and Tokunoshima (and possibly Okinoerabu Island) of the Amami Islands. An extant map of Japan held by the Hōjō clan describes Amami as a "privately-owned district." The Shimazu clan also claimed the rights to the Twelve. In 1227 Shōgun Kujō Yoritsune affirmed Shimazu Tadayoshi's position as the jitō of the Twelve Islands among others. After the Kamakura shogunate was destroyed, the Shimazu clan increased its rights. In 1364, it claimed the "eighteen islands" of Kawanabe District. In the same year, the clan's head Shimazu Sadahisa gave his son Morohisa properties in Satsuma Province including the Twelve Islands and the "extra five" islands. The latter must be the Amami Islands.

Tanegashima under the Tanegashima clan

The Tanegashima clan came to rule Tanegashima on behalf of the Nagoe family but soon got autonomous. It usually allied with, sometimes submitted itself to, and sometimes antagonized the Shimazu clan on mainland Kyūshū. The Tanegashima clan was given Yakushima and Kuchinoerabu Island by Shimazu Motohisa in 1415. In 1436 it was given the Seven Islands of Kawanabe District, Satsuma Province (the Tokara Islands) and other two islands by Shimazu Mochihisa, the head of a branch family.

Tanegashima is known in Japanese history for the introduction of European firearms to Japan. Around 1543, a Chinese junk with Portuguese merchants on board was driven to Tanegashima. Tanegashima Tokitaka succeeded in reproducing matchlock rifles obtained from the Portuguese. Within few decades, firearms, then known as tanegashima, were spread across Sengoku Japan.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi's reunification of Japan finalized the Tanegashima clan's status as a senior vassal of the Shimazu clan. It was relocated to Chiran of mainland Kyūshū in 1595. Although it moved back to Tanegashima in 1599, Yakushima and Kuchinoerabu Island fall under the direct control of the Shimazu clan. These islands all constituted Satsuma Domain during the Edo period.

Okinawa Islands

Polities of the Okinawa Islands were unified as the Ryūkyū Kingdom in 1429. The kingdom conquered the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands. At its peak, it also subjected the Amami Islands to its rule.

In 1609, Shimazu Tadatsune, Lord of Satsuma, invaded the Ryūkyū Kingdom with a fleet of 13 junks and 2,500 samurai, thereby establishing suzerainty over the islands. They faced little opposition from the Ryukyuans, who lacked any significant military capabilities, and who were ordered by King Shō Nei to surrender rather than to suffer the loss of precious lives. After that, the kings of the Ryukyus paid tribute to the Japanese shogun as well as to the Chinese emperor. In 1655, the tributary relations between Ryukyu and Qing were formally approved by the shogunate. In 1874, the Ryukyus terminated tribute relations with China.

In 1872, the Japanese government established the Ryukyu han under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Ministry. In 1875, jurisdiction over the Ryukyus changed from the Foreign Ministry to the Home Ministry.

In 1879, the Meiji government announced the annexation of the Ryukyus, establishing it as Okinawa Prefecture and forcing the Ryukyu king to move to Tokyo.

When China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki after its 1895 defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese officially abandoned its claims to the Ryukyus.

American military control over Okinawa began in 1945 with the establishment of the Okinawa Advisory Council. In 1952, the U.S. was formally granted control over Ryukyu Islands south of 29°N latitude, and other Pacific islands, under the San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan. The Okinawa Advisory Council eventually became the government of the Ryukyu Islands which existed from 1952 to 1972. Administrative rights reverted to Japan in 1972.

On February 27, 2010, at 5:31 a.m. local time, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurred 80 kilometres (50 mi) east-southeast of Naha at a depth of 22 kilometres (14 mi), but no major damage was reported. At least eight recorded aftershocks were reported, with magnitude up to 5.3

Today, numerous issues arise from Okinawan history. Some Ryukyuans and some Japanese feel that people from the Ryukyus are different from the majority Yamato people. Some natives of the Ryukyus claim that the central government is discriminating against the islanders by allowing so many American soldiers to be stationed on bases in Okinawa with a minimal presence on the mainland. Additionally, there is some discussion of secession from Japan.

Many popular singers and musical groups come from Okinawa Prefecture. These include the pop groups Begin and Orange Range, as well as singers Namie Amuro and Gackt, among many others.

Historical description of the "Loo-Choo" islands

An article in the 1878 edition of the Globe Encyclopaedia of Universal Information describes the islands:

Loo-Choo, Lu-Tchu, or Lieu-Baeu, a group of thirty-six islands stretching from Japan to Formosa, in 20°-27° 40' N. lat., 126" :o'-!29° 5' E. long., and tributary to Japan. The largest, Tsju San ('middle island'), is about 60 miles long and 12 broad; others are Sannan in the and Sanbok in the . Nawa, the chief port of Tsju San, is open to foreign commerce. The islands enjoy a magnificent climate and are highly cultivated and very productive. Among its products are tea, rice, sugar, tobacco, camphor, fruits, silk, cotton, paper, porcelain, and lacquered ware. The small people seem a link between the Chinese and Japanese.

Demographics

The residents of the island chain are Japanese citizens. Labeling them as Japanese poses no problem with regard to the Ōsumi and Tokara Islands in the north, but there are problems about the ethnicity of the residents of the central and southern groups of the island chain.

Scholars who recognize shared heritage among the native population of the Amami, Okinawa, Miyako and Yaeyama Islands label them as Ryukyuans (琉球人, Ryūkyūjin). It should be noted that the label is given by outsiders and is not a self-designation. They do not identify themselves as such although they share the notion that they are somewhat different from mainland Japanese, whom they call "Yamato". They usually express self-identity as the native of a particular community, which is called shima (シマ) in various dialects. Their identity can extend to an island and then to Japan as a whole, but rarely to intermediate regions.

For example, the people of Okinawa Island refer to themselves as Uchinaanchu (ウチナーンチュ, people of Okinawa) and the people of Okinoerabujima in the Amami Islands call themselves the Erabunchu (エラブンチュ, people of Erabu), while referring to the Okinawans as Uchinaanchu or Naafanchu (ナーファンチュ, people of Naha), as they consider themselves distinct from the Okinawans. Other terms used include Amaminchu (アマミンチュ) and Shimanchu (シマンチュ) in the Amami Islands, Yeeyamabitu (イェーヤマビトゥ) in the Yaeyama Islands, Yunnunchu (ユンヌンチュ) on Yoronjima, and Myaakunchuu (ミャークンチュー) in the Miyako Islands.

Ecology

Yakushima

Watase's Line, which crosses the Tokara Islands, marks a major biogeographic boundary. The north of the line belongs to the Palaearctic subregion while the southern portion is the northern limit of the Oriental subregion. Yakushima in Ōsumi is the southern limit of the Palaearctic subregion. It is featured with millennium-old cedar trees. The island is part of Kirishima-Yaku National Park and was designated as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1993.

Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama

The south of Watase's Line is recognized by ecologists as a distinct subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion. The flora and fauna of the islands have much in common with Taiwan, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia, and are part of the Indomalaya ecozone.

The coral reefs are among the World Wildlife Fund's Global 200 ecoregions. The reefs are endangered by sedimentation and eutrophication, which result from agriculture as well as fishing.

Mammals endemic to the islands include Iriomote cat, the Okinawa Flying-fox, the Ryukyu long-tailed giant rat, the Ryukyu mouse, and the Ryukyu shrew.

Birds found in the Ryukyus include the Amami Woodcock, the Izu Thrush, the Japanese Paradise Flycatcher, the Narcissus Flycatcher, the Okinawa Rail (yanbaru kuina), the Ruddy Turnstone, the Ryukyu Kingfisher, the Ryukyu Minivet, the Ryukyu Robin, the Ryūkyū Scops Owl, the extinct Ryukyu Wood Pigeon, and the White-backed Woodpecker.

Approximately one half of the amphibian species of the islands are endemic. Endemic amphibians include the Sword-tail Newt, Anderson's Crocodile Newt, Hyla hallowellii, Holst's Frog, Otton Frog, Ishikawa's Frog, the Ryukyu Tip-nosed Frog, Namiye's Frog, and the Kampira Falls Frog.

Various species of snake known locally as habu also inhabit the Ryukyus, including Trimeresurus elegans, Trimeresurus flavoviridis, Trimeresurus tokarensis, and Ovophis okinavensis. Other snakes native to the Ryukyus are Achalinus werneri, Achalinus formosanus, Elaphe carinata, Elaphe taeniura, Cyclophiops semicarinatus, Cyclophiops herminae, Dinodon semicarinatum, Dinodon rufozonatum, Calamaria pfefferri, Amphiesma pryeri, Calliophis japonicus, Laticauda semifasciata, and Hydrophis ornatus.

Lizards native to the islands include Kishinoue's Giant Skink, Kuroiwa's Ground Gecko, Japalura polygonata, Plestiodon stimpsonii, Plestiodon marginatus, Scincella boettgeri, Scincella vandenburghi, Ateuchosaurus pellopleurus, Cryptoblepharus boutonii nigropunctatus, Apeltonotus dorsalis, and Takydromus toyamai.

Subspecies of the Chinese box turtle and the Yellow pond turtle are native to the islands, as is the Ryukyu black-breasted leaf turtle.

See also

• Nanpō Islands
• Tanegashima Space Center

Notes

1. Or, rarely, Duuchuu (ドゥーチュー). "語彙詳細 ― 首里・那覇方言". University of the Ryukyus. Retrieved 2012-01-01.
2. ^ Ajiro Tatsuhiko and Warita Ikuo, Waga kuni no kōiki na chimei oyobi sono han'i ni tsuite no chōsa kenkyū (The geographical names and those extents of the wide areas in Japan), Kaiyō Jōhōbu Gihō, Vol. 27, 2009.online edition
3. Japanese government classifies Amami Islands into Satsunan Islands.
4. http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0802-02=
5. "『奄美群島』を決定地名に採用". Geospatial Information Agency of Japan. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
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References

• Kang, David C. (2010). East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute. New York : Columbia University Press. 13-ISBN 9780231153188/10-ISBN 023115318X; 13-ISBN 9780231526746/10-ISBN 0231526741; OCLC 562768984
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 10-ISBN 0-674-01753-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• This article incorporates text from the 1878 edition of the Globe Encyclopaedia of Universal Information, a work in the public domain

External links

• A Brief History of the Uchinanchu (Okinawans)
• National Archives of Japan: Ryukyu Chuzano ryoshisha tojogyoretsu, scroll illustrating procession of Ryuku emissary to Edo, Hōei 7 (1710)

v t e Regions and prefectures of Japan
Regions & subregions	Hokkaidō Tōhoku Kantō Nanpō Islands Chūbu Hokuriku Kōshin'etsu Shin'etsu Tōkai Kansai Chūgoku San'in San'yō Shikoku Kyūshū Northern Southern Okinawa
Prefectures	Hokkaidō Hokkaido Tōhoku Aomori Iwate Miyagi Akita Yamagata Fukushima Kantō Ibaraki Tochigi Gunma Saitama Chiba Tokyo Kanagawa Chūbu Niigata Toyama Ishikawa Fukui Yamanashi Nagano Gifu Shizuoka Aichi Kansai Mie Shiga Kyoto Osaka Hyōgo Nara Wakayama Chūgoku Tottori Shimane Okayama Hiroshima Yamaguchi Shikoku Tokushima Kagawa Ehime Kōchi Kyūshū Fukuoka Saga Nagasaki Kumamoto Ōita Miyazaki Kagoshima Okinawa
Category

• Ryukyu Islands
• Ecoregions of Japan
• Marine ecoregions
• Archipelagoes of Japan