The in the

East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated b ...

are an island chain located 38 km west of the port city of

Ichikikushikino, Kagoshima is a city located in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The modern city of Ichikikushikino was established on October 11, 2005, from the merger of the city of Kushikino with the town of Ichiki (from Hioki District). At the end of January 2013, the ...

Major islands

Minor islands

All minor islands are currently (as in 2017) uninhabited. #seems to undergo significant erosion and may disappear

History

The islands once consisted of 14 villages, belonging to Shikijima-gun,

Satsuma Province was an old province of Japan that is now the western half of Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Satsuma" in . Its abbreviation is . History Satsuma's provincial capital was Satsumasendai. D ...

(''Satsuma no Kuni'') during the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

. In 1889, the islands were consolidated into Kami-Koshiki and Shimo-Koshiki villages. In 1897, the islands were merged with Satsuma-gun. Later, Kashima village and Sato village broke off, for a total of four villages. In 2004, during "the great Heisei merger", the villages were merged with the city of

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...

, on the coast of

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

Important Bird Area

The islands have been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because they support populations of

Japanese wood pigeon The Japanese wood pigeon (''Columba janthina'') is a species of columbid bird. It is found in East Asia along shorelines of the Pacific's Korea Strait, Philippine Sea and East China Sea. They are believed to be the largest representative of the ...

s and

Pleske's grasshopper warbler Styan's grasshopper warbler (''Helopsaltes pleskei''), also known as Pleske's grasshopper warbler and Taczanowski's warbler, is a species of Old World warbler in the family Locustellidae. It breeds in eastern Siberia to Korea, Kyushu and Izu ...

Attractions

The cruise course visiting many scenic coastal rocks and islets is available from Shimo-Koshiki island.甑島：国内屈指の断崖･奇岩クルージング！（観光船かのこ）
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External links

Map at Google Maps

Archipelagoes of Japan Japanese archipelago Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean Important Bird Areas of Japan {{kagoshima-geo-stub