With only 300 residents, the small Yaeyama island of Taketomi is one of the most popular day trips from neighboring Ishigaki Island. Yet despite this daily influx of tourism, it manages to retain its ...

As soon as you step onto Taketomi Island, southwest of Okinawa, it’s impossible not to notice that time flows much slower here than anywhere else. Paved roads are few, and so are automobiles and ...

Long before Okinawa and the surrounding islands were colonized by Japan in the 19th century, the Ryukyu Kingdom was an independent state that forged relationships with China, Taiwan and Japan, and had ...

Ferries from the larger island of Ishigaki — whose airport is the the Yaeyamas' most popular gateway — take little more than 10 minutes to reach the small terminus on Taketomi, an island that was an ...

It's quiet here in the morning. From outside my low-walled villa, a scratchy shuffle, like boots on cornflakes, begins the day on Taketomi Island, a speck in Okinawa's sprawling Yaeyama archipelago. I ...

Sign up for the best picks from our travel, fashion and lifestyle writers. In the southernmost reach of Japan, far closer to Taipei than Tokyo, sit the Yaeyama ...

Travel to Japan has never been more popular. Yet, while the country has an enviable amount of assets, most tourists only visit perennial favorites like Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto and miss out on the ...