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) in the center, 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. Japan is divided into 47 prefectures. This page lists lighthouses of the mainland portion of the Japanese prefecture of Shimane, which faces the Sea of Japan on the far southwestern coast of Honshū. This is a rugged and beautiful coast, with many small ports but only a few big ones. Hamada is the most important port in the prefecture. There is a separate page for the Oki Islands, which are governed as part of Shimane prefecture. 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. On Honshū there is at least one Coast Guard Section Office in each prefecture, often two or more. Shimane has one office at Hamada, but lights in the eastern half of the prefecture are maintained by the office at Sakai, located just over the border in Tottori Prefecture. A note on the Sea of Japan/East Sea controversy: The Directory takes no side in any international dispute; it makes use of the terminology, names, and spellings as they currently exist in each area covered. The sea between Japan and Korea is called the Sea of Japan on the pages for Japan and the East Sea on the pages for Korea. 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
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Hamada Coast Guard District Lighthouses
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Sakai Coast Guard District Lighthouses
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![]() Tsunowa Hana Light, Matsue, April 2019 Instqgram photo by Gaku Fujihara |
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Information available on lost lighthouses: |
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Oki Islands | East: Tottori and Tajima | West: Western Yamaguchi
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Posted February 28, 2007. Checked and revised April 17, 2025. Lighthouses: 51. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.