Ojika (小値賀町, Ojika-chō) is a town located in Kitamatsuura District, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan.
In 2001, archeological survey was carried out by the Ojika City Board of Education in conjunction with the Kyushu and Okinawa Society for Underwater Archeology at the underwater site of Yamami, situated on a small reef 100 meters from the eastern shore of Ojika in the Karamizaki ward.
A number of shards of Thai stoneware, as well as Chinese blue and white pottery, likely from Jingdezhen, dating to the 16th and 17th centuries were found.
Nozaki was abandoned by the six remaining families in 1971 after a pregnant woman died in childbirth with no doctor present due to stormy weather making the island inaccessible.
[4] In 2015, 46.4% of the population of Ojika was above 65 years old, compared to the national average of 26.8%, a common trend among other remote islands in Japan.
[6] The island hosts the Ojika International Music Festival and Kids Camping Kingdom, as well as various other activities promoting sightseeing.
A wide variety of Ojika's marine products are famous, such as chicken grunt, amberjack, beltfish, and abalone.
In 2007, the Ojika municipal government began a program of converting century-old private houses known as kominka (古民家) into lodging.
[9] The native forests of Ojika were cut down in order to create space for rice paddies and cattle farming.
The remaining forest has been largely colonized by invasive species brought to the island as a result of trade with Japan and China over the centuries.
[10] The sea star Ophidaster multispinus, previously found only in the Hainan Strait of southern China, was first identified in Japan in the Ojika islands.