Japan - a Country of Many Islands

How many islands do you think make up Japan? Take a guess! There are the five main islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. I'll give you a hint, the answer is much more than five.  

There are a total of 6,852, according to the Japan Statistical Yearbook.  Of the 6847 remote islands (meaning not one of the five main islands), 416 are inhabited. Excluding continental landmasses like Australia, Honshu is the world's seventh largest island, after Greenland, New Guinea, Borneo, Madagascar, Baffin Island, and Sumatra.  Hokkaido is 19th largest, and Kysushu is 31st.

Nagasaki is the prefecture with the most islands, 971. Kagoshima has 605, followed by Hokkaido with 509. Rounding out the top ten are Shimane with 369, Okinawa 363, Tokyo 330, Miyagi 311, Iwate 286, Ehime 270, and Wakayama 253. 

In addition to the five main islands, I have visited a few of these smaller islands in Japan.  

In Spring 2015, I stayed on Aka Island in Okinawa a few days.

In 2015, I visited Rebun Island, off the northern tip of Hokkaido.

In 2016, while on my Kumano kodo trip, I visited Urashima, the onsen island and part of Wakayama prefecture.

I spent a few days on Yakushima in 2017, which is part of Kagoshima prefecture. I wrote about that trip here, here, and here.

In 2017, I visited Gunkanjima, an uninhabited island that belongs to Nagasaki.

New Year Week 2019, I stayed on Hachijojima, which is part of Tokyo prefecture. I wrote about this trip here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

I'm not traveling to any islands these days, but I do look forward to traveling again and seeing more of Japan's 6852 islands.