World Heritage Identification Number: 662
World Heritage since: 1993
Category: Natural Heritage
WHE Type: Natural Landscapes & Geographic Features
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇯🇵 Japan
Continent: Asia
UNESCO World Region: Asia and the Pacific
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Yakushima: A Biodiverse Haven in the Pacific
Yakushima, located in the Ōsumi Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, is a captivating island that spans an area of 504.88 square kilometers. With a population of approximately 11,858 inhabitants, it serves as a unique blend of natural beauty and human settlement. Accessible via hydrofoil ferry, car ferry, or air travel to Yakushima Airport, the island offers a diverse range of experiences for visitors.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
Located in the interior of Yaku Island, at the meeting-point of the palaearctic and oriental biotic regions, Yakushima exhibits a rich flora, with some 1,900 species and subspecies, including ancient specimens of the sugi (Japanese cedar). It also contains a remnant of a warm-temperate ancient forest that is unique in this region.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criterion (vii): Yakushima, despite being a small island, boasts several key features including impressive mountains which rise to nearly 2,000 m, and an outstanding gradient from the high peaks of the central core down to the seacoast. The property is home to a number of extremely large diameter Japanese cedar trees, thousands of years old with the oldest and most spectacular individuals of the species found on Yakushima Island. It contains the last, best example of an ecosystem dominated by the Japanese cedar in a superb scenic setting. Thus, Yakushima is a valuable property having natural areas of biological, scientific and aesthetic significance on a small island.
Criterion (ix): Yakushima is an island ecosystem with high mountains––a characteristic rare in the region at around 30 degrees north latitude. It contains a unique remnant of a warm-temperate primeval forest which has been much reduced elsewhere in the region. These forests extend through an altitudinal sequence from the coast up to the central peaks. The property is very important for scientific studies on evolutionary biology, biogeography, vegetation succession, interaction of lowland and upland systems, hydrology, and warm-temperate ecosystem processes.
Encyclopedia Record: Yakushima
Yakushima (屋久島) is one of the Ōsumi Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, 504.88 km2 (194.94 sq mi) in area, has a population of 11,858. It is accessible by hydrofoil ferry, car ferry, or by air to Yakushima Airport.Additional Site Details
Area: 10,747 hectares
Number of Components: 1
(ix) — Outstanding example representing ecological and biological processes
Coordinates: 30.315 , 130.5086111111
IUCN World Heritage Outlook
The 2025 Conservation Outlook on Yakushima reports the following assessment:
Source: International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) · View assessment
Image
© tsuda from Tsushima, Aichi, Japan, CC BY-SA 2.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
