A ferry connecting Uno Port in Okayama Prefecture and Takamatsu Port in Kagawa Prefecture has ceased services after 109 years. The ferry completed its last trip across the Seto Inland Sea on Sunday night after a long-term decrease in passengers led to the deterioration of ...
Waves of change washed over the Seto Inland Sea during the 2010s
Attracting international tourists used to be the goal. Events and trends over the past decade, however, have caused a small island to rethink their tourism strategy.
Hyogo to relax wastewater controls amid fears Seto Inland Sea is 'too clean' for fish
Hyogo Prefecture, which is suffering from poor catches of some fish, has decided to allow greater quantities of nitrogen and phosphorus in wastewater discharged into the Seto Inland Sea, after deeming its water too clean for fish to live in, officials said Monday. The prefecture ...
Lifestyles on the Seto Inland Sea change with advancements in the fishing industry
When I first came to Japan, I was stunned by the beauty of the Seto Inland Sea. Its thousands of peaked islands look as if they'd dropped straight from the sky and settled like gum drops on the water. Stretching 450 kilometers from Osaka ...
An island festival steeped in history
In 1185, Japan's Taira (Heike) and Minamoto (Genpei) clans played out the final battle of the Genpei War, the result of which would have a profound effect on Japan ushering in its first shogun with Kamakura as the shogunate. In the latter part of the ...
Two people were injured Tuesday when a college rowing cutter capsized between Tomogashima groups of islands near the city of Wakayama and Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture, pitching the 23 people aboard into the ocean. One crew member clung to the hull and was rescued ...
Celebrating New Year's the island way
On the small island where I live in the middle of Japan's Seto Inland Sea, new year celebrations are stalwart traditional. Preparations start a week before when the holiday spirit wafts in on sea breezes tinted with chilling temperatures. The island holds a community ...
Submitting to the masters on Onomichi's Path of Literature
The Onomichi Path of Literature is a short 1-kilometer walking trail that introduces the many famous literary masters associated with the Japan Heritage city.
The death of a Japanese countryside festival
Ancient rites bend to an aging, shrinking population, but how much longer can local traditions hold out?
Awaji Island wind turbine topples over as typhoon cuts through western Japan
A 60-meter-high wind turbine erected in a park on Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture toppled over in the early hours of Friday as powerful Typhoon Cimaron passed through western Japan. No injuries were reported, local authorities said. The wind turbine was built in 2002 to ...
One man's labor-of-love museum captures Seto Inland Sea island's storied stone history
Build a stone museum and they will come? That's the idea behind the K's Labo museum on Kitagi Island in Okayama Prefecture.
Japan's public policy is killing rural entrepreneurship
While big-ticket tourism projects in Japan thrive, those involved in smaller-scale projects can feel starved of government support.
