The Yaeyama Islands are nearly 1,000 kilometers away from the main islands of Japan. You can’t get any further away from Tokyo and still be in Japan. Even though the Yaeyama Islands belong to Japan, they are much closer to Taiwan. In the past, there was even a ferry from Taiwan to Ishigaki City, the island group’s biggest city.
The 23 Yaeyama Islands belong to a larger group called the Ryukyu Islands, which were formed by volcanoes. The biggest island of the Ryukyus is Okinawa, while the second and third largest are both in the Yaeyama Islands. The Chinese and Japanese have acknowledged the existence of the Yaeyama Islands for over 1,000 years. Native people lived there for hundreds of years before the islands joined Japan in 1879.
Today, the Yaeyama Islands are attracting a growing number of tourists. Most reach Ishigaki Island by plane from Tokyo or Okinawa, but there are also occasional flights from Taipei and Hong Kong. Visitors can enjoy the island’s white-sand beaches and water activitiesas well as explore other islands nearby. Ishigaki is also famous for Ishigaki beef, which is high in fat and extremely delicious.
