is the largest of the

Yaeyama Islands The Yaeyama Islands (八重山列島 ''Yaeyama-rettō'', also 八重山諸島 ''Yaeyama-shotō'', Yaeyama: ''Yaima'', Yonaguni: ''Daama'', Okinawan: ''Yeema'', Northern Ryukyuan: ''Yapema'') are an archipelago in the southwest of Okinawa Pref ...

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 ...

, and the second largest in

Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan. It consists of three main island groups—the Okinawa Islands, the Sakishima Islands, and the Daitō Islands—spread across a maritime zone approximately 1,000 kilometers east to west an ...

after

Okinawa Island , officially , is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five Japanese archipelago, main islands of Japan. The island is ...

itself. The island has an area of and a 2005 population of 2,347. The island does not have an airstrip, and most visitors—over 390,000 in 2006—arrive from Ishigaki by ferry, a ride to on Iriomote's northeast coast or on the southeast coast. Administratively, the island belongs to Taketomi Town,

. Its infrastructure is limited to a single coastal road connecting the hamlets on the northern and eastern shores.

Wildlife

The island is famed for the Iriomote cat, a

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

wild

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

found only on Iriomote. , the population size is estimated to be 100–109 individuals. The island has a venomous snake, '' Protobothrops elegans'' or "elegant

pit viper The Crotalinae, commonly known as pit vipers,Mehrtens JM (1987). ''Living Snakes of the World in Color''. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. . or pit adders, are a subfamily (biology), subfamily of Viperidae, vipers found in Asia and the ...

", known locally as the ''habu'', a species whose bite has a fatality rate of 3% and a permanent disability rate of 6–8%.U.S. Navy (1991). ''Poisonous Snakes of the World''. New York: Dover Publications Inc. . ''Satakentia liukiuensis'', the only species in the genus '' Satakentia'', is a

palm tree The Arecaceae () is a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially c ...

that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the two islands of Ishigaki and Iriomote in the

Culture

The Iriomote dialect of the

Yaeyama language The Yaeyama language (, ''Yaimamuni'') is a Southern Ryukyuan language spoken in the Yaeyama Islands, the southernmost inhabited island group in Japan, with a combined population of about 53,000. The Yaeyama Islands are situated in the Southern ...

is spoken by some people on the island.

History

The island had few settlements of fishermen and rice growers on the coastal areas, but it never had a large population until the Iriomote Coal Mine operated between 1889 and 1959. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

some residents of Ishigaki were forcibly made to take refuge in Iriomote, many of whom contracted malaria. After the war, the US Forces in Japan eradicated malaria from the island, and the island has been malaria-free since then. The island, together with the rest of Okinawa Prefecture, remained a US-controlled territory until 1972. Iriomote was returned to Japan on June 17, 1972. The possibility exists that a World War II-era U.S. submarine lies in about of water off the coast of Iriomote Island. During operations with an Okinawan company using a U.S. made "SCORPIO" ROV in 1995, a group of divers encountered a sonar contact with what appeared to be a metal structure, about in diameter and about in length (exposed) at an angle of roughly 20-30 degrees. The SONAR image of a large unexpected obstruction to the operations prompted the divers to command evasive maneuvers and avoid the area for the safety of the ROV. The divers, thinking they would have another opportunity to work in the area at a later date, left the area and never returned to that site. Their ROV was lost in 1997 off

Yonaguni Island , one of the Yaeyama Islands, is the westernmost island of Japan, lying from the east coast of Taiwan, between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea. The island is administered as the Towns of Japan, town of Yonaguni, Okinawa, Yonaguni, Ya ...

, the last island belonging to Okinawa off the east coast of Taiwan. They were fairly certain that the object was a submarine, and quite possibly the USS ''Snook''. No further dives in the area have yet been attempted. A large volcanic eruption took place at a

submarine volcano Submarine volcanoes are underwater vents or fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. Many submarine volcanoes are located near areas of tectonic plate formation, known as mid-ocean ridges. The volcanoes at mid-ocean ridges ...

north of the island in 1924. It had an estimated

volcanic explosivity index The volcanic explosivity index (VEI) is a scale used to measure the size of explosive volcanic eruptions. It was devised by Christopher G. Newhall of the United States Geological Survey and Stephen Self in 1982. Volume of products, eruption c ...

of 5. The island's coast was covered in large quantities of pumice and pumice was also found as far as Hokkaido.

Economy

Apart from tourism, the island economy is sustained by agricultural production, primarily of

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

, culture pearl growing and

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

Geography and climate

90% of the island is covered by dense jungle and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

swamps. 80% of the island is protected state land, and 34.3% of the island forms the Iriomote National Park. The highest point on the island is Mt. Komi (古見岳 ''Komidake'') at . Around northwest () of Iriomote is an active undersea volcano which last erupted in 1924; the summit is below sea level. The island is surrounded by multiple smaller islands, including Yubu Island approximately 0.5 km to the east and Ballast Island approximately 2.5 km off the northeastern coast. The island's Urauchi River is the largest river in Okinawa Prefecture, and the smaller Nakama and Nakara rivers also flow within the island. Iriomote is also home to Pinaisara Falls, the largest waterfall in Okinawa Prefecture. Iriomote has a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southeast Florida, United States ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Af''). The average yearly temperature is , and the average monthly temperature ranges from in January to in July. Iriomote has a typhoon season that, on average, runs from June to September.

Education

Schools on Iriomote Island are operated by Taketomi Town. Combined elementary and junior high schools include: * Funauki Elementary and Junior High School (竹富町立船浮小中学校) * Iriomote Elementary and Junior High School(竹富町立西表小中学校) Junior high schools include: * Funaura Junior High School (竹富町立船浦中学校) – * Ōhara Junior High School (竹富町立大原中学校) – Elementary schools include: * Komi Elementary School (竹富町立古見小学校) – * Ohara Elementary School (竹富町立大原小学校) – Haemi * Shirama Elementary School (竹富町立白浜小学校) – Shirahama (白浜) * Uehara Elementary School (竹富町立上原小学校) – Uehara For public senior high school students may attend schools of the Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education.

Gallery

File:Tudumari-no-hama Iriomote Island Japan10bs4500.jpg, Tsuzumari-no-hama (Tsukigahama Beach) File:Urauchi River Iriomote 2007-04-05.jpg, Urauchi-gawa: the longest river in Okinawa File:Mariyudo iriomote 2007-04-05.jpg, Mariyudō-no-taki: Waterfall on the Urauchi River File:Kampire iriomote 2007-04-05.jpg, Kampire-no-taki: A section of the Kampire waterfall on the Urauchi River File:Pinaisara iriomote 2007-04-05.jpg, Pinaisara-no-taki: Waterfall on the north of the island File:Iriomote mangrove 2007-04-04.jpg, Mangrove on the Nakama River File:Heritiera littoralis - Sakishimasuo - Iriomote island Japan2.jpg, Sakishimasuou tree: Said to be the biggest and oldest mangrove tree in Japan File:Hoshizuna-no-hama 2007-04-04.jpg, Hoshizuna-no-hama (Star Sand Beach): Beachcombers looking for star-shaped sand grains File:Star sand Iriomote.jpg, alt=Star sand from Hoshizuna-no-hama: Abraded calcium-carbonate tests of foraminifers from nearby reefs., Star sand from Hoshizuna-no-hama: Abraded calcium-carbonate tests of foraminifers from nearby reefsHohenegger, J.
Larger foraminifera as important calcium-carbonate producers in coral reef environments and constituting the main components of carbonate beach sands; examples from the Ryukyu archipelago.
Institut für Paläontologie, Universität Wien.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Iriomote Islands of Okinawa Prefecture Yaeyama Islands