Yonaguni

English

Etymology

From Japanese 与那国島(よなぐにじま) (yonagunijima).

Proper noun

Yonaguni

1. An island of Japan, part of the Yaeyama archipelago, the westmost inhabited island of Japan.
   • 2011 February 10, Martin Fackler, “Japanese Isle in Sea of Contention Weighs Fist Versus Open Hand”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 January 2013, Asia Pacific‎^[2]:

     Yonaguni, with three tiny villages and a small airport, is Japan’s westernmost point, a place from which Taiwan is visible on a clear day. It is also the closest spot of inhabited land to the Senkakus, a small group of uninhabited islets controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan, which call them the Diaoyu Islands.
     This put Yonaguni and its 1,600 mostly aging residents uncomfortably close to a bruising diplomatic showdown with Beijing last September over a Chinese trawler detained near the Senkakus, which resulted in Tokyo’s backing down. The government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan has since vowed to beef up defenses for Japan’s “outlying islands,” and it appears close to a decision on the small Yonaguni garrison, a plan that has been under discussion for years.

   • 2022 May 9, Ben Blanchard, “Taiwan rattled by 6.1 magnitude quake, no immediate damage reported”, in Kim Coghill, editor, Reuters‎^[3], archived from the original on 09 May 2022, Asia Pacific‎^[4]:

     The quake had a depth of 27.5 km (17.1 miles) with its epicentre 89.5 km (55.6 miles) off Taiwan's east coast, roughly halfway between the coast of Hualien county and the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni, the weather bureau said.

   • 2022 August 5, Anthony Kuhn, “On Japan's Yonaguni island, fears of being on the front line of a Taiwan conflict”, in NPR‎^[5], archived from the original on 05 August 2022, World:

     For years it was known as the "Two Gun" island – one gun for each of the two policemen stationed here.
     Yonaguni, Japan's most westerly island, can feel like a peaceful paradise — it is covered in tropical forests and hammerhead sharks glide through its azure waters.
     But there is trouble on the horizon. Almost 70 miles away lies the island of Taiwan — the self-governing democracy which once again finds itself in the headlines.
     On Thursday, six Chinese ballistic missiles landed in water near Japan's southwestern islands, one of them near Yonaguni and five others within Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone, according to the Japanese authorities.

2. A Ryukyuan language spoken on the island of Yonaguni.

Further reading

• Saul B. Cohen, editor (1998), “Yonaguni”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[6], volume 3, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 3530, column 3

Japanese

Romanization

Yonaguni

1. Rōmaji transcription of よなぐに