The coastline is surrounded by cliffs of up to 100 meters in height, making landing impossible except for one location in the south.

The village had an elementary school, and its own ship for connection to the mainland and other islands.

However, the island was repeatedly devastated by typhoons, especially in 1945, 1951, 1956, and 1957 leading to plans to relocate the population to either Amami Ōshima or mainland Kagoshima Prefecture.

A decision was reached by the government to relocate the remaining seven households with a total of 28 people to Kagoshima in January 1970.

Although landing is not permitted to the general public, the abandoned buildings have been looted, and in 1996 the Japanese government discovered that a party of six Chinese had illegally landed on the island and were attempting to establish residence.