is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

located in Kunigami District,

Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan. It consists of three main island groups—the Okinawa Islands, the Sakishima Islands, and the Daitō Islands—spread across a maritime zone approximately 1,000 kilometers east to west an ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. As of 2016, the village has an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 1,683 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of 21 persons per km². The total area is 81.79 km².

Geography

Administrative divisions

The village includes six wards. *Arume (有銘) *Gesashi (慶佐次) *Kawata (川田) *Miyagi (宮城) *Taira (平良) *Takae (高江)

Neighbouring municipalities

Nago is a city located in the northern part of Okinawa Island, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. As of December 2012, the city has an estimated population of 61,659 and a population density of 293 persons per km2. Its total area is 210.30 km2. Geo ...

Kunigami is a List of villages in Japan, village in Kunigami District, Okinawa, Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It occupies the north tip of Okinawa Island, with the East China Sea to the west, Pacific Ocean to the east, and Municipalities ...

* Ōgimi

Ecotourism

The village of Higashi is one of the most remote places on Okinawa island and has become a hotspot of

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of nature-oriented tourism intended to contribute to the Ecological conservation, conservation of the natural environment, generally defined as being minimally impactful, and including providing both contributions to conserv ...

. Okinawa's first ecotourism association was established in Higashi in 1998, with various associations eventually combined in 2005 to become the Higashi Village Tourism Promotion Association. One major project was the building of a ten-hectare

mangrove forest Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangrove trees cannot withsta ...

called Hirugi Park, built around Gesashi Bay, the largest such forest on the island. The mangroves had been designated as a natural Monument of Japan in 1972 and were eventually incorporated into Yambaru National Park in 2016.

Cultural Properties

*Name (Japanese) (Type of registration)

Natural Monuments

*Gesashi Bay mangrove forest (慶佐次湾のヒルギ林) (National) *Large looking-glass mangrove tree ''Heritiera littoralis'' (サキシマスオウノキ) (Municipal) *Large magnolia tree ''Magnolia compressa'' (オガタマノキ) (Municipal)　

Education

Schools are: Higashi Combined Kindergarten, Elementary, and Junior High School (東幼小中学校), Arume Kindergarten and Elementary School (有銘幼小学校), and Takae Elementary School (高江小学校).

Notable residents

Ai Miyazato is a former Japanese professional golfer who competed on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the LPGA of Japan Tour (JLPGA). She was the top-ranked golfer in the Women's World Golf Rankings on three occasions in 2010. Early life, family and amateur ...

, golfer * Yūsaku Miyazato, golfer

References

External links

*
Higashi official website
Villages in Okinawa Prefecture {{Okinawa-geo-stub