is the northernmost point of the island of

Hokkaidō is the second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by railway via the Seikan Tunnel. The ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is situated in Wakkanai, Sōya Subprefecture. The is at the cape, although the true northernmost point under Japanese control is the small deserted island of Benten-jima, northwest. Since the cape is just away across La Perouse Strait from Cape Crillon,

Sakhalin Island Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...

, it is possible to see the island of Sakhalin from Cape Sōya on a clear day. There are more than ten monuments at Cape Sōya, including the Monument of the Northernmost Point of Japan, the Tower of Prayer (a memorial to

Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (KE007/KAL007)In aviation, two types of Airline codes, airline designators are used. The flight number KAL 007, with the ICAO code for Korean Air Lines, was used by air traffic control. In ticketing, however, IAT ...

, shot down in 1983), a statue of Mamiya Rinzō, the Monument of Peace (a memorial to the sunken submarine , and others). Sōya Misaki settlement, east of the cape, has many facilities known to be "the northernmost in Japan", including the northernmost lighthouse ( Cape Sōya Lighthouse), the northernmost filling station ( Idemitsu Cape Sōya SS), and the northernmost elementary school (Ōmisaki Elementary School).

Etymology

Cape Soya is called ''notetu'' in the

Ainu language Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu (), is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isola ...

, where ''not'' means chin or cape, and ''etu'' means nose. The name Soya is theorised to come from ''so ya'' in Ainu, meaning "Rocky shore".

Monument of Peace

On the site of Cape Sōya stands the Monument of Peace, a memorial to the , sunk with 80 men aboard on October 11, 1943, as well as 5 Japanese merchant ships sunk with 690 people, attacked by Wahoo. The inscription on the memorial reads in part: The exact position of ''Wahoo'' was confirmed by a dive team from the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd in July 2006.

Tower of Prayer

Cape Sōya is the location of another memorial, the Tower of Prayer. The monument, which is 19.83 metres tall and constructed from

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, stands in remembrance of the 269 people that were killed during

on 1 September 1983. In the incident, the aircraft operating the flight was shot down by a

Soviet Air Forces The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

Sukhoi Su-15 The Sukhoi Su-15 (NATO reporting name: Flagon) is a twinjet supersonic interceptor aircraft developed by the Soviet Union. It entered service in 1965 and remained one of the front-line designs into the 1990s. The Su-15 was designed to replace t ...

interceptor near Moneron Island, roughly 98 kilometres to the north of the cape.

Climate

Gallery

Sunset of Cape Soya.jpg, Sunset The_northernmost_point_of_Japan_monument_in_Soya_cape.jpg, Monument of the northernmost Point of Japan Birdview of Cape Soya.jpg, A view from a hill nearby Cape Soya Music Stone.jpg, The "Music Monument" which automatically plays the song ''Sōya-misaki'' each time a visitor stands in front The Tower of Prayer.jpg, The Tower of Prayer, a memorial of

Cape Soya Light Tower.jpg, Cape Sōya Lighthouse Old Navy Observatory in Cape Soya.jpg, The observatory, used by the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

to monitor the strait during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

The gas station at the northernmost tip in Japan.JPG, Idemitsu Cape Sōya SS, the northernmost filling station Wakkanai municipal Soya junior high school.JPG, Sōya Junior High School, the northernmost junior high school Wakkanai municipal Oomisaki elementary school.JPG, Ōmisaki Elementary School, the northernmost elementary school The Northern Stores around Cape Soya.jpg, Vista of "northernmost" shops KAL Monument.jpg, The Tower of Prayer File:Ohmisaki・kyu-kaigun-bourou 6260391史跡大岬旧海軍望楼.jpg, Old Navy Watch Tower (June 2006) File:Cape Soya La Pérouse 20140813.jpg, La Perouse monument File:Cape Soya satellite image 2009.jpg, Satellite image of Cape Sōya (October 2009)

References