Mikurajima was added to Your Favorites!
Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Tokyo
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
Mikurajima is the world’s largest breeding site for streaked shearwaters. They feed at sea by day, then return after dark to burrows in the forest; Tokyo’s nature authority notes that they even clamber up chinquapin trunks.
Mikurajima’s Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins develop dark belly spots as they mature—one clue researchers use to tell individuals apart. A long-running local identification survey began in 1994.
The small Mikura-miyama stag beetle lives only on Mikurajima and Kozushima, usually stays under 35 mm long, and cannot fly. It gets around by crawling—even across roads.
Mikura’s ashitaba appears in a local bento as green mixed rice topped with salty luncheon meat and egg. The island’s ashitaba is especially known for its thick stems and generous leaves.
In 1725, Mikurajima won permission to own a ship and send boxwood and firewood directly to Edo. An exiled shogunate physician had helped islanders press their case; in 1729, the island gained independence from Miyake.
A 2025 study estimates that feral cats kill at least 34,980 streaked shearwaters on Mikurajima each year. The colony was estimated at 1.75–3.5 million in the late 1970s, but about 100,000 in 2016.
Before regular supplies reached this remote island, streaked shearwaters were a precious food source. Islanders used the meat, feathers, fat and bones, while setting their own limits on how many birds to take.
Mikurajima’s prized boxwood is a century-scale family project: islanders described planting trees for descendants to harvest generations later. Its fine-grained wood is sought for luxury shogi pieces.
Mikurajima catches water from fog as well as rain: moist air rises against its cliffs, fog forms, and droplets drip from leaves as “tree-rain.” That hidden rainfall feeds groundwater and waterfalls spilling to the sea.
One Japanese chinquapin in Nango Forest has a trunk circumference of about 14 meters—nearly 46 feet around. Mikurajima’s plentiful water helps sustain its remarkable giant trees.
The fragrant nioi-ebine orchid was nearly wiped out on Mikurajima by collectors. A handful of survivors were gathered into Ebine Park for protection, turning a local wildflower into a conservation effort.
Mikurajima’s dolphin swims forbid touching or feeding, and limit how many boats and swimmers use the water. The activity is governed by Tokyo’s ecotourism framework alongside village and operator rules.
When the island’s cat shelter filled, residents volunteered to foster captured cats at home while volunteers prepared them for adoption off-island. In fiscal 2024, the project trapped 101 cats.
Local lore says the exiled woman Shirokiya Otsune served villagers flowing somen at Boro Stream. The island’s tourist association shares the story—but notes that the legend’s truth is unknown.
