| The Izu Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands stretching southward from Tokyo Bay. Izu Oshima, the largest of the islands, is also the northernmost. Several of the islands, including Izu Oshima, have had recent volcanic activity, and one of them, Miyakejima, had to be evacuated from 2000 to 2005 due to an ongoing eruption. Despite these dangers, the islands are popular tourist destinations accessible by ferry from Tokyo and from Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture. All the islands are included in the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. For administrative purposes the islands are attached to Tokyo Prefecture, although they are closer geographically to Shizuoka and Chiba Prefectures. Also included on this page are two lights of the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands, located well to the south, 1000 km (620 mi) south of Tokyo. The Ogasawara Islands were actually settled by American and British sailors starting about 1830, but they were annexed by Japan in 1876. After World War II, they were administered by the U.S. from 1945 to 1968, when they were returned to Japanese control. Two of the islands, Chichi Jima and Haha Jima, are inhabited. There is no airport; access to the islands is by a ship that sails weekly from Tokyo. In Japanese, the word for a lighthouse is toudai. The words saki and misaki are for capes and headlands, shima (also spelled sima or jima) is an island, wan is a bay, and ko is a harbor. Lighthouses in Japan are operated and maintained by the Japanese Coast Guard's Maritime Safety Agency. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. JP numbers are the Japanese Coast Guard's light list numbers. Admiralty numbers are from volume F of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
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Posted August 30, 2006. Checked and revised June 27, 2008. Lighthouses: 21. Site copyright 2008 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.