Yonaguni/Dunan Island

Northeast Asia, with the great cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, is commonly regarded as the dynamic heart of the global economy. Yet in its midst lies a chain of islands known in Japan as the Frontier or Southwestern Islands, which have been largely left behind by the dynamism. They stretch for 500 to 600 kilometers between Okinawa Island and Taiwan. Farthest is Yonaguni (properly speaking in the local language Dunan or Dunancima). Small enough to be able to walk around in a day or so, it is around 2,000 kilometers from the national capital in Tokyo, 510 from the prefectural capital of Naha, 370 from the China coast city of Fuzhou, and just 110 from Taiwan, whose mountains may be seen on a clear day from Yonaguni’s shore.