Reference entry · Kyushu

Yakushima 屋久島 · Kagoshima

A World Heritage island of ancient cedars, some thousands of years old, in one of the wettest forests in Japan. Serious walking, and serious rain.

What this page is, honestly. A researched reference entry — not a full guide. We have not walked Yakushima yet, and we have not verified its berth-to-town distances the way we do for our full guides, so you will find no walking times or timed plans here: we do not publish numbers we have not checked. What is here is accurate, sourced, and kept current.

RegionKyushuVolcanoes, hot springs, and the ports through which Japan met the outside world for two centuries.

PrefectureKagoshimaYakushima locally: 屋久島

Guide statusReferenceReader requests decide which ports we promote to full guides

Full guides near Yakushima

These Kyushu ports have complete Port of Japan guides — timed shore plans for 2–3h, 4–6h and 8h+ calls, measured berth information and honest verdicts:

Nagasaki — Dejima, the hidden Christians, castella, champon, and the atomic bombing — the most layered port day in Japan, and the hardest to plan badly.
Kagoshima — An active volcano fifteen ferry minutes from the city, a garden that borrows it as scenery, shochu, shirokuma, and the Satsuma story.
Beppu — More hot water than anywhere in Japan. Cook your own lunch in a steam vent, be buried in hot sand, and pay ¥100 to bathe where the town bathes.
Hakata (Fukuoka) — Top of Japan's cruise-call rankings: a hundred licensed street stalls, tonkotsu ramen and its vocabulary, a one-tonne festival float, and the bay the Mongols failed to take.
Sasebo — 208 islands by public boat, a burger with a definition, a hidden-Christian church, and a kilometre of covered arcade — none of it bookable, none of it needing to be.

Planning a call at Yakushima?

The site-wide tools work for any Japanese port day: the Shuttle & Berth Index explains how berth assignments decide your day, DIY or Book? covers the decision logic, and if Yakushima is your first Japanese port, read the immigration guide first.

Sailing to Yakushima? Tell us your ship and date — reference ports get promoted to full guides in the order readers actually need them.

Does Yakushima have a cruise port?

Yes — Yakushima (屋久島), in Kagoshima Prefecture, appears on Japan cruise itineraries. A World Heritage island of ancient cedars, some thousands of years old, in one of the wettest forests in Japan. Serious walking, and serious rain.

Is there a full Yakushima port guide on this site?

Not yet — this is a researched reference entry, clearly labelled as such: we have not walked Yakushima or verified its berth-to-town details in person. Our full guides in the same region cover Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Beppu, Hakata (Fukuoka), Sasebo, each with timed shore plans measured from the gangway. Reader requests decide which reference ports we promote to full guides next.

Reference entry · researched from official sources · By Takumi Yamada, Shizuoka · All 82 ports →