The nation of Japan, known in Japanese as Nihon or Nippon (日本), occupies an archipelago off the east coast of Asia. The four main islands are Hokkaidō in the north, Honshū (the largest), Shikoku in the south, and Kyūshū in the southwest. The country includes thousands of other islands of all sizes; among them the Ryūkyū (Nansei) Islands are a long chain extending to the southwest and including the large island of Okinawa, and the Nanpō Islands are another long chain extending south into the Pacific Ocean. Much of Japan is mountainous but the coastal regions are densely populated and urbanized; the country's population is about 126 million. Located at the southwestern end of the Japanese archipelago, the island of Kyūshū is divided into seven prefectures. Nagasaki Prefecture occupies the western side of Kyūshū and includes many islands offshore in the East China Sea and Korea Strait. This page includes lighthouses of the Gotō Islands (Gotō-rettō), an archipelago stretching over about 85 km (53 mi) southwestward into the East China Sea from a point to the west of Hirado Shima, north of Sasebo. The islands are roughly 100 km (60 mi) west of Nagasaki City. There are some 140 islands and islets in all, but only seven are inhabited. The largest and most populous islands are Nakadōri Shima in the north and Fukue Shima in the south. The islands are accessible by ferry from Sasebo and Nagasaki, and there is air transportation from Nagasaki to Nakadōri and to Fukue. In Japanese, the word for a lighthouse is tōdai or toudai (灯台). The words saki and misaki are for capes and headlands, hana ("nose") is a promontory, hantō is a peninsula, shima (also spelled sima or jima) is an island, bae is a reef, iwa or shi is a rocky reef, amase or se is a shoal, wan is a bay, nada is a sound or basin, kaikyō is a strait, kawa is a river, and kō or minato is a harbor. Lighthouses in Japan are operated and maintained by the Japanese Coast Guard's Maritime Safety Agency. There is at least one Coast Guard Section Office in each prefecture, often two or more. The lighthouses of Uku and Ojika are maintained by the Sasebo Office, and those of Shin-Kamigotō Town and Gotō City are maintained by the Nagasaki Office. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. JCG numbers are the Japanese Coast Guard's light list numbers. Admiralty numbers are from volume M of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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Sasebo City Lighthouses
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Koshiki Shima Light, Uku Shima Japanese Coast Guard Sasebo Office photo |
Ojika Town Lighthouses
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Shiro Se Light, Ojika Japanese Coast Guard Sasebo Office photo |
Shin-Kamigotō Town Lighthouses
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Gotō City (Southern Gotō Islands) Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses: Notable faux lighthouses: |
Adjoining pages: Northeast: Sasebo Area | East: Nagasaki Area
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Posted August 6, 2007. Checked and revised May 14, 2024. Lighthouses: 53. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.