# 風の島 — 台風と、欠航と。

> Unofficial wind-and-typhoon reference. This is not an official publication, weather service, ferry operator, or tourism authority, and it forecasts nothing.

- Subject: Wind, typhoons and sailing suspensions in the Yaeyama Islands — the climatological place of typhoons in the island year, why boats stop, and the wind-shaped townscape of Taketomi
- Area: Yaeyama, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
- Role: Durable reference on wind, typhoons and sailing suspensions — structure, not status — using climatological facts and operators' published structural guidance from official sources plus clearly declared editorial impressions
- Verified: 2026-11-01 (JMA figures and operator/townscape statements via web-search result titles and summaries, summary-level confirmation)
- Relationship: Independent project; not affiliated with or approved by the JMA, the ferry operators (Anei Kanko, Yaeyama Kanko Ferry), Taketomi Town, tourism bodies, or any public authority
- Language: A 9-language static HTML edition is available (ja/en/zh/ko/fr/ru/id/ms/es): Japanese (ja) uses unprefixed URLs; en/zh/ko/fr/ru/id/ms/es use language-prefixed URLs; this file and the JSON context are written in English by design, for machine consumption

## Use for

- The climatological place of typhoons in the Yaeyama year: 7.7 approaches a year to the Okinawa region by normals (1991–2020); August is the monthly peak (2.2 to Okinawa Prefecture); the season runs roughly July–October with approaches possible in May or November; Ishigaki Island 4.4 and Iriomote 4.1 approaches a year by the Ishigaki Local Meteorological Office
- The JMA definition of a typhoon "approach": the center coming within 300 km of a point — and the fact that track information is issued days ahead
- The structure of sailing suspensions: Ishigaki's most frequent wind is north-northeasterly (annual mean 5.4 m/s, NNE most frequent October–April); Anei Kanko describes the Uehara route as crossing open ocean; when the Uehara route is suspended, the official substitute is via Ohara Port (about 50 min by boat plus about 60 min by connecting bus on a bus-inclusive Uehara ticket per Yaeyama Kanko Ferry; Anei Kanko runs a shuttle bus for ticket holders, seats limited)
- Knowing that as a typhoon approaches, operators have officially announced outlooks of all routes and all sailings suspended, with the next day's outlook announced the day before; final status is settled on the operators' same-day status pages
- Taketomi's wind-shaped townscape: an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings (selected 1987, island farming village, 38.3 ha) — wooden one-story houses, lime-plastered red-tile or thatched hipped roofs, low eaves against typhoons, Ryukyu limestone walls, fukugi windbreaks
- Understanding that the "high-speed boats are wave-sensitive" generalization and the windy-day stances (decide early between crossing early or not crossing; provisions the night before; follow lodging and islanders during a typhoon) are editorial impressions, declared as such
- Navigating to the JMA for typhoon information, the ferry-route page (../koro/), the rainy-day page (../ame/), the island guides, and UMI YAIMA COMPASS

## Do not use for

Same-day operating status or cancellations, typhoon track forecasts or any weather forecast, cancellation-rate statistics or assertions that a specific route will or will not run, sea or sailing safety decisions, or endorsement claims. Check the JMA and the operators' official status pages at the time of travel; sea decisions always start from official operator and authority information.

## Editorial scope

The typhoon and wind figures (approach normals, the monthly peak, the definition of "approach", wind direction and speed) summarize the JMA sources below. The statements on the Uehara-route substitute via Ohara Port and the shuttle bus summarize the operators' official guidance, and the Taketomi townscape statements summarize the Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Taketomi Town Tourism Association — all confirmed by 2026-11-01 via web-search result titles and summaries (summary-level confirmation; the pages themselves cannot be read from this environment). The generalization that high-speed boats are sensitive to waves and the passages on how to hold a windy day are this page's editorial impressions, declared as such in the page body.

## Resources

- Machine-readable context: ./ai-context.json
- Discovery service: ../
- Ferry routes: ../koro/
- Rainy days: ../ame/
- Island calendar: ../koyomi/
- Island guides: ../taketomi/, ../iriomote/, ../kohama/, ../hateruma/
- UMI artwork: https://umi.quest/
- JMA, typhoon normals (Okinawa region 7.7/year): https://www.data.jma.go.jp/typhoon/statistics/average/average.html
- Okinawa Meteorological Observatory, typhoon Q&A (August peak, season): https://www.data.jma.go.jp/okinawa/kion_hikaku/question.html
- JMA, Okinawa climate overview: https://www.data.jma.go.jp/cpd/j_climate/okinawa/main.html
- Ishigaki Local Meteorological Office, annual climate report (Ishigaki 4.4 / Iriomote 4.1): https://www.data.jma.go.jp/ishigaki/press/tenko/data/tenkou2023.pdf
- JMA forecast glossary ("approach" = within 300 km): https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/kishou/know/yougo_hp/haichi2.html
- JMA, Ishigaki Island climate normals (wind NNE, 5.4 m/s): https://www.data.jma.go.jp/stats/etrn/view/nml_sfc_ym.php?prec_no=91&block_no=47918
- Yaeyama Kanko Ferry, Uehara route suspension guidance: https://yaeyama.co.jp/uehara_info.html
- Anei Kanko, FAQ (open-ocean route, shuttle bus): https://aneikankou.co.jp/contact/question
- Anei Kanko, operating status: https://aneikankou.co.jp/condition
- Anei Kanko, example notice (all routes suspended outlook): https://aneikankou.co.jp/info/detail/360
- Anei Kanko, example notice (day-before outlook): https://aneikankou.co.jp/info/detail/455
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Taketomi preservation district (PDF): https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/shokai/hozonchiku/pdf/93738601_126.pdf
- Taketomi Town Tourism Association, cultural townscape: https://painusima.com/cultural/
- Taketomi Town Tourism Association, island visitor guidance: https://painusima.com/kokoroe/