The , also known as the Kerama Gap, is a waterway which lies between Miyako Island and

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 ...

consisting of a 250km-wide passageway with

international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...

and airspace. It is the widest strait in the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands (Ōsumi Islands, Ōsumi, Tokara Islands, Tokara and A ...

Political significance

The Miyako Strait is of global geopolitical significance, as it is one of the few international waterways for

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

People's Liberation Army Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy, also known as the People's Navy, PLA Navy or simply Chinese Navy, is the naval warfare military branch, branch of the People's Liberation Army, the national military of the People's Republic of China. It i ...

to access the Pacific Ocean from the

East China Sea The East China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. China names the body of water along its eastern coast as "East Sea" (, ) due to direction, the name of "East China Sea" is otherwise ...

. The PLA Navy used the strait on a large scale for the first time in April 2010,China's Navy Gets Its Act Together, and Gets Aggressive , Danger Room , Wired.com
/ref> an act which has since become a commonplace practice for them to conduct military exercises in the Pacific.

Cultural significance

The Miyako Strait represents a cultural and linguistic split between the Southern and Northern

Ryukyuan languages The , also Lewchewan or Luchuan (), are the indigenous languages of the Ryukyu Islands, the southernmost part of the Japanese archipelago. Along with the Japanese language and the Hachijō language, they make up the Japonic language family. Ju ...

, with the north being more influenced by Japanese culture. The Northern Ryukyu Islands have historically been more advanced (socially, technologically, and infrastructurally) than the Southern Ryukyu Islands.Kerr, George H. ''Okinawa: History of an Island People''. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1958. 116-117.

References

{{coord, 25, 23, N, 126, 25, E, dim:500000_region:JP, display=title Ryukyu Islands Straits of Japan Landforms of Okinawa Prefecture