It is native to southern Japan, Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands, southeastern China and Hainan.

In Japan, two notable populations occupy islands near the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture, Aoshima and Tsuki Shima.

[4] It is also reportedly naturalized in South Africa, Mauritius, Réunion, the Andaman Islands, Java, New Caledonia, Micronesia, Hawaii, Florida, Bermuda, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

They are often grown as a landscape palm in hot and wet tropical and subtropical climates like eastern Australia, Southeast Asia, and the southeast United States.

[6][7] This plant can become a weed, or in some ecosystems an invasive species, in places such as Bermuda,[5] Hawaii,[8] Florida wetlands and on some Caribbean Islands.