The entire island and its surrounding waters are part of Kerama Shotō National Park.

During the Battle of Okinawa, the principal of the island's branch of Tokashiki primary school, who had previously experienced the Shanghai Incident, thought that the enemy would not attack if there were no soldiers.

After the war, the population increased to around 380 due to Japanese citizens leaving Micronesia after the South Seas Mandate ended.

[5] Starting around the year 2000, over 100 training exercises were conducted by the Japanese Air Self Defense Force.

[8][9][10][11][12][13] In the 1971 Okinawa Reversion Agreement's memorandum of understanding about facilities and boundaries, Mae Island was included in a list of 7 "temporary training areas" that will continue to be provided to the US military, which has become a large problem.

In 2000, the Naha base arranged a perpetual consent with the city of Tokashiki and since then more than 100 trainings have been conducted on Mae Island.