Rail transport in Okinawa

Extensions brought the rails to Awase, part of the present-day city of Okinawa (17.7 km).

At the end of the Taishō period, the prefecture completed a railway system having three lines radiating from Naha: one to Kadena, one to Yonabaru, and one to Itoman.

Along with the development of roadways, automobile traffic increased, and railroads experienced competition from buses.

Both ceased operations in 1944-1945, and aerial bombardment and the ensuing ground war devastated the rail systems.

A people mover operated within the grounds of the Expo '75, the Okinawa International Maritime Exposition, from July 20, 1975 to January 18, 1976.

In 1911, he established the Okinawa Electric Railway to link Naha and Shuri with a trolley line.

From July 20, 1975 to January 18, 1976, a people mover built by Kobe Steel, operated within the grounds of Expo '75.

The first rails laid down in Okinawa, they included lines that encircled the island and others that relayed traffic to the harbor.

In the Meiji period, Minamidaitōjima was uninhabited, but in 1900, Tamaoki Shokai began to develop the island, and started both the sugar refinery and the handcar railway in 1902.

During World War II, aerial attacks destroyed the railway, but in 1950, Daito Sugar Refining restored it to operation.

It served through the 1983 spring season, and thereafter, trucks replaced the railway for the transportation of sugar cane.

At present, steam and diesel locomotives, passenger and freight cars have been preserved on Minamidaitōjima.