- Where
- Western Pacific, about 1,000 km
south-south-east of Tokyo - Coordinates
- 27.0667° N
142.2083° E (Chichijima) - Islands
- More than 30, in three groups
two inhabited (Wikipedia) - People
- 2,560 in 2021
(Wikipedia) - Status
- Natural World Heritage Site
UNESCO, 24 June 2011 - Getting there
- Ogasawara Maru from Tokyo
about 24 hours; no airport - Best visited
- Year-round; humpback whales February to April
A whole day and a night of open sea, nothing but deep blue going by, and then green cliffs rising sheer from it. Above the harbour, a red gate stood where a flight of stone steps ended. In the forest, trees balanced on bundles of their own roots like octopuses deciding where to go, and off the beach the coral showed through the water as if through glass.
The short answer
The Ogasawara Islands, also called the Bonin Islands, are a Japanese archipelago of more than thirty subtropical islands in the western Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres south-south-east of Tokyo, in three groups: Mukojima, Chichijima and Hahajima. Wikipedia gives their total area as 84 square kilometres and their population as 2,560 in 2021, on the only two inhabited islands, Chichijima and Hahajima. They are governed from Chichijima as Ogasawara Village, part of the Tokyo Metropolis, which also includes the more distant Volcano Islands, not covered by this entry. UNESCO inscribed the islands, reefs and sea around them as a natural World Heritage Site on 24 June 2011, a property of 7,939 hectares. There is no airport.
Why it's worth knowing
A name made of a misreading. The islands’ English name traces to an article of 1817 in which the French scholar Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat, working from a Japanese book, took a description of the islands as uninhabited for their name, read the characters the wrong way, and wrote the result down in French as “Bo-nin Sima”, Wikipedia records, citing the geographer Hyman Kublin. The hyphen fell away, and Bonin stuck. Even the rock carries it: the islands are made mostly of a volcanic rock named boninite.
Snails, the reason for the listing. UNESCO’s description of the site counts 134 species of land snail, 100 of them found only here, and 441 native plant taxa, 161 of them endemic vascular plants, and calls the combination of so much endemism with such clear adaptive radiation what sets the islands apart. It also names the Bonin flying fox, a critically endangered bat. The snails are what visitors are asked to protect: Japan’s Ministry of the Environment asks everyone arriving to check shoes, clothes and bags for seeds and insects and to wash their shoe soles, against introduced flatworms that prey on the native land snails.
The field notes
Settled from Hawaii
The islands were uninhabited when sailors first recorded them, although tools and carvings show that Micronesian people had been in the group before. The first settlement on Chichijima was made in May 1830 by a party formed in Hawaii, Wikipedia records: an Italian-born British subject, Matteo Mazzaro, men from Britain, the United States and Denmark, and thirteen Native Hawaiians from Oahu. Japan proclaimed sovereignty on Chichijima in January 1862, and Japanese settlers arrived from 1876; a mixed language, Bonin English, grew up among the families descended from the first settlers. In 1944 all 6,886 civilians in the islands were ordered to evacuate to the Japanese mainland. After the war the Allied occupation authorities allowed only 129 of the settlers’ descendants to return, and the United States Navy held the islands, restricting resettlement, until they were returned to Japan in 1968.
Whales, dolphins and an island with a limit
The Ogasawara Village Tourism Association says humpback whales come to the islands to breed from about December to May, with February to April the best months to watch them; sperm whales live about 20 kilometres offshore, and trips to see them run mostly from June to November; and dolphins are seen all year. The small island of Minamijima, off Chichijima, is visited under rules described by Ogasawara Kaiun, the ferry company: only with a guide certified by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, no more than fifteen people per guide and one hundred a day, two hours per group, and no visits from mid-November to January.
A Bonin pandanus standing on its stilt roots.
Chichijima's green hills seen from the sea.
Photograph: Kaz Ish · Chichijima , Ogasawara - panoramio · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
A dolphin surfacing off the islands.
Photograph: Kaz Ish · Chichi-jima island - panoramio · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
- Settle your passage home, and only then everything else. The ship does not come back for days, and without it, neither do you.
- Use the day and the night at sea to finish the list. I had it nearly finished by the time the cliffs came up, and then they came up.
- Scrub your boot soles and brush the seeds off your clothes before you land, and again before every forest walk, as the signs ask.
- Visit the little southern island in the company of one of the local guides, walk only where they walk, and leave when they tell you your time is up.
- People live here all year round. Shop slowly, say good morning, and carry your rubbish home on the ship.
A tako-no-ki. Pandanus boninensis, a screw pine found only in these islands, which grows on dry, rocky slopes and stands on thick aerial prop roots, so that its Japanese name means octopus tree, Wikipedia records. The settlers who came from Hawaii in 1830 adapted their weaving to its short, stiff leaves for hats, baskets, sandals and boxes, by the account of Japan’s Tourism Agency. Like everything that grows here, it stays where it is: the Ministry of the Environment asks visitors not to pick or remove plants.
Tally, in the marginSeveral had shaded me by the time I began counting their legs, and then counting was all I did. Each had its own opinion about how many a tree needs, and held it with complete confidence.
Getting there
How to get there. By sea only; Wikipedia notes that the islands have no airport. The Ogasawara Maru, run by Ogasawara Kaiun, sails from Takeshiba Pier in central Tokyo to Futami Port on Chichijima in about 24 hours, leaving at 11:00 and arriving at 11:00 the next day, according to the operator, and then waits three days on the island before sailing back, on a six-day cycle. The Ogasawara Village Tourism Association describes it as the only scheduled ship between Tokyo and Chichijima, running about once a week. Hahajima is reached from Chichijima by a smaller ship, the Hahajima Maru.
When to go. All year: Chichijima is warm in every month, by the Japan Meteorological Agency’s averages as Wikipedia gives them. For humpback whales, February to April; for sperm whales, June to November. Minamijima is closed from mid-November to January.
What to arrange ahead. The ship first, in both directions, then a bed on Chichijima for the days the ship is in port. Book any guided tour you want, especially to Minamijima, which takes a limited number of people a day. Clean your shoes and check your clothes and bags for seeds and insects before you sail.
Safety. The State Department rates Japan Level 1, exercise normal precautions (advisory dated 15 May 2025, read on 4 October 2026). The hazards are the place’s own: sun, swell and the ship’s timetable, since there is no other scheduled way home.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where are the Ogasawara Islands?
The Ogasawara Islands, also called the Bonin Islands, are in the western Pacific about 1,000 kilometres south-south-east of Tokyo, of which they are administratively part, as Ogasawara Village. More than thirty islands make up three groups; only Chichijima and Hahajima are inhabited.
How do you get to the Ogasawara Islands?
By ferry. The Ogasawara Maru of Ogasawara Kaiun sails from Takeshiba Pier in Tokyo to Chichijima in about 24 hours and returns after three days, on a six-day cycle, so a visit to the Ogasawara Islands takes about six days at least. Hahajima is a further trip from Chichijima on the Hahajima Maru.
Is there an airport on the Ogasawara Islands?
No. Wikipedia records that the Ogasawara Islands have no airport, and the Ogasawara Village Tourism Association describes the Ogasawara Maru ferry from Tokyo as the only scheduled ship to Chichijima, about once a week.
Why are the Ogasawara Islands called the Bonin Islands?
Because of a misreading. In 1817 the French scholar Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat took a Japanese description of the islands as uninhabited for their name and wrote it in French as “Bo-nin Sima”, Wikipedia records. The name Ogasawara honours a legendary discoverer whose story historians now consider false.
Why are the Ogasawara Islands a World Heritage Site?
UNESCO listed the Ogasawara Islands in 2011 for their evolution in isolation: 100 of their 134 land snail species and 161 endemic vascular plants are found nowhere else, and UNESCO points to the combination of that endemism with clear adaptive radiation. The Bonin flying fox, a critically endangered bat, lives there too.
When can you see whales in the Ogasawara Islands?
The Ogasawara Village Tourism Association says humpback whales breed around the Ogasawara Islands from about December to May, best seen from February to April, while sperm whales, about 20 kilometres offshore, are watched mostly from June to November. Dolphins are seen all year.
Can you visit Minamijima in the Ogasawara Islands?
Yes, with rules. Ogasawara Kaiun says visitors to Minamijima, off Chichijima, must go with a guide certified by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, in groups of up to fifteen, with no more than one hundred people a day and two hours per group; the island is closed from mid-November to January.
Who lives on the Ogasawara Islands?
About 2,560 people in 2021, on Chichijima and Hahajima, the two inhabited Ogasawara Islands, by Wikipedia’s count. They include descendants of the settlers who came from Hawaii to Chichijima in 1830. After all civilians were evacuated in 1944, the Allied occupation authorities allowed only 129 of those descendants to return, and the islands went back to Japan in 1968.