, native_name_link = , image_caption = Mageshima , image_size = , map_image = Osumi_Islands_Map_Japan.png , map_caption = Location of Mageshima in the Ōsumi Islands , location =

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 ...

, coordinates = , archipelago =

Ōsumi Islands The is an archipelago in the Nansei Islands, and are the northernmost group of the Satsunan Islands, which is in turn part of the Ryukyu Archipelago. The chain extends from the southern tip of Kyushu to Yakushima. Administratively, the group belo ...

, total_islands = , major_islands = , area_km2 = 8.2 , length_km = , width_km = , coastline_km = 16.5 , highest_mount = Takenokoshi , elevation_m = 71.7 , country = Japan , country_admin_divisions_title = , country_admin_divisions =

Kagoshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,599,779 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 9,187 km2 (3,547 sq mi). Kagoshima Prefecture borders Kumamoto P ...

, population = 15 , population_as_of = 2005 census , density_km2 = , ethnic_groups =

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, additional_info = , is an eight square kilometre

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese forming part of the

Satsunan Islands The is a geopolitical name for a group of islands that forms the northern part of the Ryukyu Islands. The whole island group belongs to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Major islands * Satsunan Islands ** Ōsumi Islands with: *** Tanegashima, Yakus ...

, which are usually classed with the

. It belongs to

and it is administered by the city of Nishinoomote on

Tanegashima is one of the Ōsumi Islands belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, 444.99 km2 in area, is the second largest of the Ōsumi Islands, and has a population of 33,000 people. Access to the island is by ferry, or by air to New ...

Geography

Mageshima_Island%2C_Nishinoomote_Kagoshima_Aerial_photograph

Mageshima is located west of

. The island is of volcanic origin, and has an area of approximately with a circumference of . The highest elevations on the island is , with a height of above sea level in the center of the island. The terrain is mostly low and flat. The island does not have rivers and its geology is not suitable for agriculture.

Main place names

Hayama (葉山), Ou Komori (王籠), Takabo (高坊), Kakise (垣瀬), Shiinoki (椎ノ木).

Rocks and reef

Geographical Survey Institute map (extract). Excludes land-connected beaches, small rocks on the reef, and unnamed rocks. *Bose (房瀬) - Cape Ueno. *Kose (小瀬), Katahirase (片平瀬), Ohirase (大平瀬), Kakise (垣瀬) - West side. *Kitakojima (北小島), Onase (女瀬) - Cape Shimono. *Takase (高瀬), Tsumasaki (ツマ崎) - Southeast side. *Yokose (横瀬) - East side.

Wildlife

There are

Sika deer The sika deer (''Cervus nippon''), also known as the Northern spotted deer or the Japanese deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to other parts of the world. Previously found from northern Vietnam in the south to ...

on the island. The surrounding area has good fishing grounds.

Climate

The island’s climate is classified as

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

, with a rainy season from May through September.

History

Kamakura period to postwar

Mageshima has been occupied, at least seasonally, since the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

(1185–1333 CE), as fishermen from neighboring

would use it as a base of operations. The inhabitants were evacuated during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

for security reasons. In 1951, an effort was made to colonize the island with government assistance, and the island population reached a peak of 528 people in 113 households in 1958. The economy of the island was based on the production of

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...

and

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to et ...

, as well as

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

. However, difficulties with agriculture due to pests, and due to foreign competition caused many islanders to abandon the island from the late 1960s.

Uninhabited

In 1974, the Heiwa Sogo Bank started a resort venture and floated plans for construction of the national oil reserve on the island, but neither plan came to fruition. In March 1980, the last resident left the island. In 1995, a subsidiary of Tateishi Construction acquired the island, and announced plans to construct a landing field for the Japanese

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes ten ...

HOPE-X HOPE (H-II Orbiting Plane) was a Japanese experimental spaceplane project designed by a partnership between NASDA and NAL (both now part of JAXA), started in the 1980s. It was positioned for most of its lifetime as one of the main Japanese contri ...

, on the island. Other plans to establish a

spent nuclear fuel Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor (usually at a nuclear power plant). It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor an ...

storage facility were also announced. However, subsequently no construction has been taken and the HOPE-X project itself was cancelled in 2003.

Land acquisition & military base

In 2009, Mageshima came under consideration as a possible relocation site for the

Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is a United States Marine Corps base located in Ginowan, Okinawa, Japan, northeast of Naha, on the island of Okinawa. It is home to approximately 3,000 Marines of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing and other units, and has been a U.S. military ai ...

Ginowan, Okinawa ( ryu, ジノーン, translit=Jinōn) is a city located in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2012, the city has an estimated population of 94,405, with 40,041 households and a population density of 4,838.8 persons per km2. The total area is 19.5 ...

, or at least as a site for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

to relocate its aircraft carrier aircraft touch-and-go training. However, Tateishi Construction subsequently came under investigation for

tax fraud Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

and for collusion with politicians over the project. Initial logging to clear an area for the proposed runways was performed without proper permission, and in September 2011 local fishermen filed lawsuits alleging damage to fishing grounds due to increased runoff created by the

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a pro ...

. In 2011, Japan agreed to provide the

US Military The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six Military branch, service branches: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States N ...

with a new training site instead of Iwo To (formerly called Iwo Jima) which is much further south of Japan's main islands. In November 2019, the

Government of Japan The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, c ...

made an agreement with the Tokyo-based development company Taston Airport to purchase Mageshima for 16 billion yen ($146 million). It will become a base of the

Japan Self-Defense Forces The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, the ...

and a training site to conduct landing practices for U.S. aircraft carrier-based aircraft. Japanese

Chief Cabinet Secretary The is a member of the cabinet and is the leader and chief executive of the Cabinet Secretariat of Japan. The Chief Cabinet Secretary coordinates the policies of ministries and agencies in the executive branch, and also serves as the government ...

Yoshihide Suga is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2020 to 2021. He had served as Chief Cabinet Secretary during the second administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fro ...

said "purchase of Mageshima Island is extremely important and serves for strengthening deterrence by the Japan-US alliance as well as Japan's defense capability". In addition the base will supply the

Nansei Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonagun ...

. On November 29, 2022, Kagoshima's governor Koichi Shiota agreed to the construction of the base citing the "increasingly severe security environment" surrounding Japan. Construction started on January 12, 2023 and is expected to take 4 years.

References

*McCormack, Gavin. ''Resistant Islands: Okinawa Confronts Japan and the United States''. Bowman & Littlefield (2012) -

External links

site with photos
{{Authority control Ōsumi Islands Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture JAXA Japan Self-Defense Forces United States Navy