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Ogasawara NP, Tokyo
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The shallows hide sections of a century-old telegraph cable. A local field guide reports remnants underwater here; in 1906, a cable linking Japan and the United States ran via Chichijima.
Miyanohama’s name is traditionally linked to a 1675 shogunate survey: the crew reportedly built a shrine on Chichijima and left a note declaring, “This island is part of Japan.” The shrine’s exact site remains uncertain.
Miyanohama is one place to see boninite, an exceptionally unusual volcanic rock formed about 48 million years ago. Well-preserved boninite can be observed only in Ogasawara—and its name comes from the Bonin Islands.
In 2024, green-turtle nest counts at Miyanohama reached 2.6 times the 2023 count. The beach’s busy visitor scene is just one part of its story: it is also a nesting shore for Ogasawara’s turtles.
Miyanohama’s coral-rich waters are a place to look for the Yuzen, a butterflyfish endemic to Japan. The local snorkeling guide notes that this striking fish occurs in only a limited range of southern Japanese waters.
Caves at Miyanohama served as garages for Navy Shinyō suicide-attack motorboats. A local war-history guide identifies the beach as the 2nd Shinyō squadron’s base and reports that several boat shelters remain.
A stone memorial on Miyanohama’s central deck commemorates the 350th anniversary of Shimaya Ichizaemon’s 1675 survey of Ogasawara. The village unveiled it on January 16, 2026.
