The park was established in 1972 within the municipality of Ogasawara, itself part of Tokyo.

[1][2][3] In 2011, the Ogasawara Islands were inscribed upon the UNESCO World Heritage List.

[4] The archipelago is also known as the Bonin Islands, a corruption of munin (無人), meaning 'uninhabited'.

[5] The Chichijima, Hahajima, and Mukojima clusters are included within the park, but of the three Volcano Islands, Iwo Jima and Minami Iwo Jima are not.

[1] According to the IUCN evaluation for UNESCO, 441 taxa of native plants have been recorded, of which 161 of vascular plants and 88 of woody plants are endemic; the only native mammal is the critically endangered Bonin flying fox; of the 195 recorded species of birds, fourteen are on the IUCN Red List; of the two terrestrial reptiles, the Ogasawara snake-eyed skink (Cryptoblepharus nigropunctatus) is endemic; of 1,380 insect species, 379 are endemic; of 134 species of lands snails, 100 are endemic.