Hirara, was a city located in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan on the island of Miyako. Hirara was founded on March 7, 1947.
The Sakishima Islands are an archipelago located at the southernmost end of the Japanese Archipelago. They are part of the Ryukyu Islands and include the Miyako Islands and the Yaeyama Islands. The islands are administered as part of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.
Miyako is a district located in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, that consists of a single village, Tarama.
Shimoji, was a town located in Miyako District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.
Irabu was a town located in Miyako District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.
The Ryukyuan languages, also Lewchewan languages, are the indigenous languages of the Ryukyu Islands, the southernmost part of the Japanese archipelago. Along with the Japanese language, they make up the Japonic language family. The languages are not mutually intelligible with each other. It is not known how many speakers of these languages remain, but language shift towards the use of Standard Japanese and dialects like Okinawan Japanese has resulted in these languages becoming endangered; UNESCO labels four of the languages "definitely endangered" and two others "severely endangered".
The Miyakoan language is a diverse dialect cluster spoken in the Miyako Islands, located southwest of Okinawa. The combined population of the islands is about 52,000. Miyakoan is a Southern Ryukyuan language, most closely related to Yaeyama. The number of competent native speakers is not known; as a consequence of Japanese language policy which refers to the language as the Miyako dialect, reflected in the education system, people below the age of 60 tend to not use the language except in songs and rituals, and the younger generation mostly uses Japanese as their first language. Miyakoan is notable among the Japonic languages in that it allows non-nasal syllable-final consonants, something not found in most Japonic languages.
Miyako Island is the largest and the most populous island among the Miyako Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Miyako Island is administered as part of the City of Miyakojima, which includes not only Miyako Island, but also five other populated islands.
Miyakojima is a city jurisdiction located on several islands in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.
The Ryukyu Islands, also known as the Nansei Islands or the Ryukyu Arc, are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands, with Yonaguni the westernmost. The larger are mostly high islands and the smaller mostly coral. The largest is Okinawa Island.
Ikema Island, is located to the north of Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The island is connected to Miyako Island with a 1,425-metre-long (4,675 ft) bridge (池間大橋), which was completed in February 1992. There is a pond in the centre of the island. To the north-east is the Ikema-jima Block Beach (池間島ブロックビーチ). The variety of Miyakoan language spoken here is also called Ikema. It is set apart from closely related language variants by its lexical word-tone system.
The Miyako Islands are a group of islands in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, belonging to the Ryukyu Islands. They are situated between the Okinawa Island and Yaeyama Islands.
Shimojishima Airport is located on the island of Shimojishima in Miyakojima, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It has the longest runway of any island in Japan south of the main island of Okinawa. Mitsubishi has built a low cost carrier terminal which began operating passenger flights in March 2019.
Minna Island, or Minnajima (水納島), is an island in the Miyako Islands in the jurisdiction of Tarama, Miyako District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.
The Sakishima Beacons are a network of eighteen observation platforms and beacons dating to the early Edo period and located in the Sakishima Islands, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Erected in 1644 by the government of the Ryūkyū Kingdom at the instigation of the Satsuma overlords, at a time of international tension during the transition between the Ming and the Qing Dynasties of China, the beacons were responsible for monitoring and reporting on maritime traffic, with a view to restricting foreign vessels in accordance with the Tokugawa policy of sakoku, i.e. national seclusion. After an initial survey by the Council for the Protection of Cultural Properties in 1993, due to uncertainties over land rights and difficulties of coordination between the involved municipalities, it was not until 2007 that they were jointly designated an Historic Site.
Irabu Island, is an island in Miyakojima, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The island is connected to Miyako Island by a 3,540-metre-long (11,610 ft) bridge Irabu Ohashi (伊良部大橋), which was completed in January 2015. Irabu Island is also connected via six bridges to Shimoji-shima. There are multiple language variants spoken on the island: Nakachi-Irabu, Kuninaka, Sawada-Nakahama, and Sarahama.
