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 ...

consisting of the islands of

Kitadaitōjima , also spelled as Kita Daitō, Kita-Daitō-shima, and Kitadaitō, is the northernmost island in the Daitō Islands group, located in the Philippine Sea southeast of Okinawa, Japan. It is administered as part of the village of Kitadaitō, Shima ...

and

Okidaitōjima , also spelled as Oki Daitō Island or Oki-Daitō or Oki-no-Daitō, previously known as , is an abandoned island in the Daitō Islands group southeast of Okinawa Island, Okinawa, Japan. It is administered as part of the village of Kitadaitō, ...

Shimajiri District is a district located in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Etymology Modern translation of Shimajiri means "Butt of the island" which may refer to its southerly position on the island of Okinawa. Compare this to Kunigami District, Okinawa. Howev ...

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 October 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 615 and a

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be u ...

of 47 persons per km². The total area is 13.10 km². All of the inhabitants live on Kitadaitōjima.

Geography

Kitadaitō Island is located about 360 km east of

Okinawa Island , officially , is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five Japanese archipelago, main islands of Japan. The island is ...

. It is the easternmost island in

. The island shows characteristic landscape of a raised coral reef island, with a very flat area in its centre. Okidaitō Island is entirely the private property of the Rasae Group, that used to exploit phosphate ore there. It was then rented by the U.S. Forces in Japan as a shooting range, that started to be used conjointly by the

Japan Self Defence Forces The are the military forces of Japan. Established in 1954, the JSDF comprises the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. They are controlled by the Ministry of Defense wit ...

in 2015. It is off limits to civilians and currently uninhabited.

Area

* Kitadaitō Island: 11.94 km² * Okidaitō Island: 1.15 km²

Administrative divisions

The village includes four wards. * Minami (南) * Minato (港) * Nakano (中野) * Rasa (ラサ)

Group of Water Collecting Ponds

Kitadaitō Village does not present, as Minamidaitō Village, many natural bogs. There is, in the centre of the island, a large fresh water pond, the level of which changes with the tides due to the

freshwater lens In hydrology, a lens, also called freshwater lens or Ghyben-Herzberg lens, is a convex layer of fresh groundwater that floats above the denser saltwater and is usually found on small coral or limestone islands and atolls. This aquifer of fresh w ...

effect. This pond used to be a very valuable water resource before the

desalination Desalination is a process that removes mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination is the removal of salts and minerals from a substance. One example is Soil salinity control, soil desalination. This is important for agric ...

process enabled the creation of a tap water network in the village. It is currently only used for agricultural purposes. There are also many artificial water ponds, such as the "East Water Tank" that is the easternmost water tank of Okinawa Prefecture, the "Red Pond" located in front of the sugar factory or the many smaller agricultural ponds. This water is an important resource for the irrigation of the 274 ha (50% of the island area) of sugar cane fields. The sixteen water ponds of Kitadaitō have been registered on the " One Hundred Noticeable Water Pond List" of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on March the 25th 2010. Those ponds are important resting places for migrating birds such as ospreys, black kites, grey-faced buzzards or herons and a famous birdwatching spot. Every year on the Sugar Cane Day (4th Sunday of April), the residents and the Children Association clean around the ponds.

Climate

Kitadaitō has a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southeast Florida, United States ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Af'') with very warm summers and mild winters. Precipitation is significant throughout the year; the wettest month is June and the driest month is February. The island is subject to frequent

typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

History

Kitadaitōjima remained uninhabited until formally claimed by the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

in 1885. In 1900, a team of pioneers from Hachijōjima became the first human inhabitants of the island, and started the cultivation of

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

from 1903. Until

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Kitadaitōjima was owned in its entirety by Dai Nippon Sugar (now Dai Nippon Meiji Sugar), which also operated mines for the extraction of

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

for use in fertilizer. After World War II, the island was occupied by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The village of Kitadaitō was established in 1946. The island was returned to Japan in 1972.

Economy

Formerly heavily dependent on

phosphate Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element phosphorus. In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthop ...

mining, the village economy is now based on cultivation of sugar cane, commercial fishing, and seasonal tourism. There is no port on the island and ships must be loaded/offloaded by crane.

Transport

The island has an airport,

Kitadaito Airport is located on the island of Kitadaitōjima in the village of Kitadaitō, Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The prefecture operates the airport, which is classified as a third class airport. Only a flight from Naha to Kitadait� ...

, with one flight a day to

Minami-Daito Airport is an airport in Minamidaitō, Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The prefecture operates the airport, which is classified as a third class airport. Only a flight from Naha to Minami-Daito is operated every day. History The orig ...

Education

There is the Kitadaito Village Kitadaito Elementary-Junior High School (北大東村立北大東小中学校 ''Kitadaitō Sonritsu Kitadaitō Shōchūgakkō'') and the Kitadaito Village Kitadaito Kindergarten (北大東村立北大東幼稚園 Kitadaitō Sonritsu Kitadaitō Yōchien'').

Cultural Properties

*Name (Japanese) (Type of registration)

Cultural Properties Cultural property, also known as cultural patrimony, comprises the physical items that are part of the cultural heritage of a group or society, as opposed to less tangible cultural expressions. They include such items as cultural landscapes, histo ...

*Former Tōyō Sugar Kitadaitō Branch (旧東洋製糖北大東出張所) (National) *Former Tōyō Sugar rock phosphate cargo pier (旧東洋製糖燐鉱石積荷桟橋) (National) *Former Tōyō Sugar rock phosphate storage facility (旧東洋製糖燐鉱石貯蔵庫) (National) *Former Tōyō Sugar Employee Bathhouse water tank and bathtub (旧東洋製糖社員浴場貯水タンク・風呂場) (National) *Former Tōyō Sugar Shimosaka Bathhouse water supply and bathtub (旧東洋製糖下阪浴場水取場・風呂場) (National) *Nirokusō hotel (弐六荘) (National) *Sueyoshi Family Residence (stone wall, main house) (末吉家住宅石垣・主屋) (National)

Historic Sites

*Kitadaitō Island Rock Phosphate Mine Site (北大東島燐鉱山遺跡) (National)

Places of scenic beauty is a collective term used by the Japanese government's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties to denote Cultural Properties of JapanIn this article, capitals indicate an official designation as opposed to a simple definition, e.g "Cultural ...

*Kitadaitō Island Rock Phosphate Mine Site (北大東島燐鉱山遺跡) (National)

Natural Monuments Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part ...

*Fan palm tree (Livistona chinensis) plant community of Nakano (中野のビロウ群落) (Municipal) *Hokusendō Cave in Aza Nakano (北大東村字中野の北泉洞) (Prefectural) *Kitadaitō Island Rock Phosphate Mine Site (北大東島燐鉱山遺跡) (National) *Nagahagu cliffs and talus special plant community (長幕崖壁及び崖錐の特殊植物群落) (National)

References

External links

Kitadaitō official website

Kitadaito Elementary-Junior High School
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kitadaito, Okinawa Villages in Okinawa Prefecture Daitō Islands Populated coastal places in Japan