Okinawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan and has a population of 1,457,162 and a geographic area of 2,281 km2.
The Ryukyuan people are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group native to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch between the islands of Kyushu and Taiwan. Administratively, they live in either the Okinawa Prefecture or the Kagoshima Prefecture within Japan. They speak one of the Ryukyuan languages, considered to be one of the two branches of the Japonic language family, the other being Japanese and its dialects. Hachijō is sometimes considered by linguists to constitute a third branch.
The Okinawan language or Central Okinawan is a Northern Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama, Kumejima, Tonaki, Aguni and a number of smaller peripheral islands. Central Okinawan distinguishes itself from the speech of Northern Okinawa, which is classified independently as the Kunigami language. Both languages are listed by UNESCO as endangered.
This article is about the history of the Ryukyu Islands southwest of the main islands of Japan.
The Ryukyu Kingdom was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a tributary state of imperial Ming China by the Ryukyuan monarchy, who unified Okinawa Island to end the Sanzan period, and extended the kingdom to the Amami Islands and Sakishima Islands. The Ryukyu Kingdom played a central role in the maritime trade networks of medieval East Asia and Southeast Asia despite its small size. The Ryukyu Kingdom became a vassal state of the Satsuma Domain of Japan after the invasion of Ryukyu in 1609 but retained de jure independence until it was transformed into the Ryukyu Domain by the Empire of Japan in 1872. The Ryukyu Kingdom was formally annexed and dissolved by Japan in 1879 to form Okinawa Prefecture, and the Ryukyuan monarchy was integrated into the new Japanese nobility.
Okinawa Island, officially Okinawa Main Island, is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu (Nansei) Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five main islands of Japan. The island is approximately 106 kilometres (66 mi) long, an average 11 kilometres (7 mi) wide, and has an area of 1,206.98 square kilometers (466.02 sq mi). It is roughly 640 kilometres south of the main island of Kyushu and the rest of Japan. It is 500 km northeast of Taiwan. The total population of Okinawa Island is 1,384,762. The Greater Naha area has roughly 800,000 residents, while the city itself has about 320,000 people. Naha is the seat of Okinawa Prefecture on the southwestern part of Okinawa Island. Okinawa has a humid subtropical climate.
Iha Fuyū was the father of Okinawaology and a Japanese scholar who studied various aspects of Japanese and Okinawan culture, customs, linguistics, and lore. His signature was Ifa Fuyu in English, because of the Okinawan pronunciation. Iha studied linguistics in the University of Tokyo and was devoted to the study of Okinawan linguistics, folklore, and history. His most famous book on the subject, Ko Ryūkyū, was published in 1911 and remains one of the best works on Okinawan studies. He devoted much time to the discovery of the origins of Okinawan people to establish their history. He had considerable influence not only on the study of Okinawan folklore but also of Japanese folklore.
The Ryukyu independence movement or the Republic of the Ryukyus is a political movement advocating for the independence of the Ryukyu Islands from Japan.
Tatsuhiro Ōshiro was an Okinawan novelist and playwright from Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands.
Imperial Chinese missions to the Ryukyu Kingdom were diplomatic missions that were intermittently sent by the Yuan, Ming and Qing emperors to Shuri, Okinawa, in the Ryukyu Islands. These diplomatic contacts were within the Sinocentric system of bilateral and multinational relationships in the Sinosphere.
Turtleback or Turtle-back tombs or turtle shell tombs are a particular type of tombs originating from the Song Dynasty. They are commonly found in some coastal provinces of southern China, the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, and in Vietnam. They can also be found in countries with overseas Chinese populations like Malaysia.
Most early Asian settlers to the United States went to Hawaii. Most of these early immigrants moved to the islands as laborers to work on the pineapple, coconut, and sugarcane plantations. These early migrants have tended to stay, although a handful returned to their home countries. There has also been recent immigration to Hawaii from more ethnic Asian groups, including the Thai, Indian, Indonesian, and the Vietnamese.
The Northern Ryukyuan languages are a group of languages spoken in the Amami Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture and the Okinawa Islands, Okinawa Prefecture of southwestern Japan. It is one of two primary branches of the Ryukyuan languages, which are then part of the Japonic languages. The subdivisions of Northern Ryukyuan are a matter of scholarly debate.
Furusutobaru Castle is a Ryukyuan gusuku in Ishigaki, Okinawa. It is located on Ishigaki Island next to Miyara Bay. It was listed as one of the Historic Sites of Japan in 1978.
Fusako Kushi was a female writer from Okinawa. Her most notable work is Memoirs of a Declining Ryukyuan Woman, which was received with hostility and outrage.
The Okinawans in Hawaii are a Ryukyuan ethnic group, numbering anywhere between 45,000-50,000 people, or 3% of Hawaii’s total population.
Ryukyuan assimilation policies are a series of practices aimed at the Ryukyuan people with the intent of assimilating them into Japanese culture and identity beginning shortly before the Disposition of Ryukyu in 1879 and continuing to the present day.
The Ryukyuans in Brazil are Brazilian nationals of Ryukyuan descent.
Kyuzo Toyama was an Okinawan political activist. He is commonly referred to as the "father of Okinawan emigration" due to his work in sending Okinawans abroad.
The foreign relations of the Ryukyu Kingdom were shaped through heavy mutual contact and trade with surrounding nations, most notably Japan and China. The influence exerted by both of these nations differ throughout each era of Ryukyuan history. To a lesser extent, other nations played a role in Ryukyuan diplomacy.
United States 
Japan 
Brazil 
Peru 
Taiwan 
Argentina 
Canada 
Mexico 
Chile 
Philippines 
Malaysia 
Ecuador 