HOME Back

My Favorites

${v.title}

${v.desc | trunc(25)}

${v.title}

${v.desc | trunc(25)}

View All

Use the

Planning a Trip to Japan?

Share your travel photos with us by hashtagging your images with #visitjapanjp

None

Yakushima Island

HOME > Japan’s Local Treasures > Yakushima Island

Ancient forests and rivers that never run dry, the ideal island for a nature break

Yakushima Town

Often called “the island of ancient forest and water” Yakushima Island’s diverse ecosystems and village lifestyles thrive on its unique natural water cycles.

Its mountainous terrain of millennia-old cedar trees sits in the path of Japan’s Kuroshio warm ocean current, elevating the saturated air to cooler heights, and producing regular heavy downpours. Kuroshio brings with it tiny organisms that spawn into marine life around the island, as its water runs into rivers to return to the sea.

With 78 species of endemic plants, other flora and shores teeming with sea life, villagers on Yakushima Island enjoy a plentiful bounty of seafood and edible plants. But the water cycle also plays another important role in their everyday life. Most of Yakushima’s electricity is hydroelectric, making it ideal island for for eco-friendly stays.