The is a collective term for the groups of islands that are located to the south of the

Japanese archipelago The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chin ...

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

. They extend from the Izu Peninsula west of

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous a ...

southward for about , to within of the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

. The Nanpō Islands are all administered by

Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

The Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the

Japan Coast Guard The is the coast guard of Japan. The Japan Coast Guard consists of about 13,700 personnel and is responsible for the protection of the coastline of Japan under the oversight of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Th ...

defines the Nanpō Shotō as follows:Ajiro Tatsuhiko and Warita Ikuo, ''Waga kuni no kōiki na chimei oyobi sono han'i ni tsuite no chōsa kenkyū'' (The geographical names and those extents of the wide areas in Japan), Kaiyō Jōhōbu Gihō, Vol. 27, 200
online edition
/ref> * Nanpō Shotō (Nanpō Islands) ** Izu Shotō (

Izu Islands The are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshū, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages; all part of Tokyo Prefecture. The largest is Izu Ōshima, usually called simply Ō ...

) ** Ogasawara Guntō (

Bonin Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan and northwest of Guam. The name "Bonin Islands" comes from the Japanese word ''bunin'' (an archaic readi ...

) ***

Mukojima is a Japanese surname. It may also refer to: * , Japanese footballer * , Japanese footballer * Mukojima islands, a subgroup of the Bonin Islands ** Mukojima, one of the Mukojima islands * Mukojima, a former ward that's now part of the special ward ...

Rettō ***

Chichijima , native_name_link = , image_caption = Map of Chichijima, Anijima and Otoutojima , image_size = , pushpin_map = Japan complete , pushpin_label = Chichijima , pushpin_label_position = , pushpin_map_alt = , ...

Rettō ***

Hahajima , native_name_link = , image_caption = Map of the Hahajima Rettō (Imōtojima is mislabeled as Tori-shima) , image_size = , pushpin_map = Japan complete , pushpin_label = Hahajima , pushpin_label_position = , pushp ...

Rettō ** Kazan Rettō (

Volcano Islands The or are a group of three Japanese-governed islands in Micronesia. They lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and belong to the municipality of Ogasawara, Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. The islands are all active volcanoes lying atop ...

) *** Kita Iwo Jima (

North Iwo Jima , native_name_link = , image_caption = Kita-Iwō-jima , image_size = , pushpin_map = Japan complete , pushpin_label = North Iwo Jima , pushpin_label_position = , pushpin_map_alt = , pushpin_relief ...

) *** Iwo Jima *** Minami Iwo Jima (

South Iwo Jima , native_name_link = , image_caption = Minami-Iōtō , image_size = , pushpin_map = Japan complete , pushpin_label = South Iwo Jima , pushpin_label_position = , pushpin_map_alt = , pushpin_relief ...

) *** Nishinoshima **

Okinotorishima , or Parece Vela, is a coral reef with two rocks enlarged with tetrapod-cement structures. It is administered by Japan with a total shoal area of and land area . Its dry land area is mostly made up by three concrete encasings and there is a ...

Minamitorishima , also known as Marcus Island, is an isolated Japanese coral atoll in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, located some southeast of Tokyo and east of the closest Japanese island, South Iwo Jima of the Ogasawara Islands, and nearly on a straight line ...

The

Geospatial Information Authority of Japan The , or GSI, is the national institution responsible for surveying and mapping the national land of Japan. The former name of the organization from 1949 until March 2010 was Geographical Survey Institute; despite the rename, it retains the same ...

, a government agency that is responsible for standardization of place names, does not use the term Nanpō Shotō, although it has agreed with the Japan Coast Guard over the names and extents of the subgroups of the Nanpō Shotō. The Japanese claim to have discovered the islands in 1593; however, many of the islands were known by the Spanish sailors that went from

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

since

Bernardo de la Torre Bernardo de la Torre was a Spanish sailor, primarily noted for having explored parts of the Western Pacific Ocean south of Japan in the 16th century. Bernardo de la Torre sailed under the instructions of Ruy López de Villalobos, who sent him in Au ...

's voyage in 1543, while the British claimed the islands in 1827. However, archeological evidence has since revealed that some of the islands were prehistorically inhabited by members of an unknown Micronesian ethnicity.小笠原・火山(硫黄)列島の歴史
/ref> Neither Japan nor Britain developed the Nanpō Islands, although a small colony of Europeans and Americans was established at Chichi-jima. Japan began colonizing the islands in 1853, claimed them in 1861, then finally annexed them in 1891 as part of

Tokyo Prefecture Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. By the mid-1930s the islands were closed to foreigners and a small

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

base was established at Chichi-jima.

References

Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc Islands of Tokyo Archipelagoes of Japan Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean {{Tokyo-geo-stub

See also

References