Japan is a paradise of the unattainable, with temples dating back centuries, high-tech cities, and island resorts. Whether ...

Just a few meters beneath the clear, blue waters of Okinawa, reef-building corals known as Scleractinia have quietly lived ...

Snorkelling, Diving and Whale-Watching The coral reefs and clear waters that surround many of Okinawa’s islands make it a top spot for snorkelling and diving. Ishigaki is a particularly good island to ...

The same ocean current that makes the Philippines such an exceptional scuba destination feeds the islands of Okinawa. Here, abundant coral reefs crackle with tropical fish and sea turtles ...

An 890-meter section of the cave opened to the public in 1972. As a coral reef island, Okinawa is rich in limestone. Gyokusendō is the largest of the some 600 limestone caves found on the island ...

Over a four-month period, from early September to late December 2021, 62 sites from around the main Okinawa Island were surveyed and two to four dominant coral genera at each reef were recorded.

The new eDNA method is set to make monitoring of the coral reefs faster, easier, and cheaper. The coral reef pictured is just one of the reefs that researchers looked at around Okinawa.

Their findings revealed a previously unrecognized diversity across the Ryukyu Archipelago, an exceptional richness of reef-building corals along Okinawa’s coastline. Many of these coral genera may ...

Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have developed a method to measure coral biodiversity through extracting the environmental DNA (or eDNA) from a liter of surface ...

Unlike the other areas of Japan, Okinawa has a tropical climate and is known as the “Hawaii of Japan”. From broad beaches to coral reefs to unique cuisine, Okinawa will give you a different Japanese ...

Coral experts say they have seen most of Okinawa's reefs disappear in the past 25 years and are striving to protect those that remain. Naturalists and conservation groups say the Yambaru area ...

Snorkelling, Diving and Whale-Watching The coral reefs and clear waters that surround many of Okinawa’s islands make it a top spot for snorkelling and diving. Ishigaki is a particularly good ...