Yonaguni (Japanese: 与那国島, Hepburn: Yonaguni-jima, Yonaguni: Dunan-chima, older Juni-shima;[2] Yaeyama: Yunoon-zïma; Okinawan: Yunaguni-jima), one of the Yaeyama Islands, is the westernmost island of Japan,[3] lying 108 kilometers (58 nmi; 67 mi) from the east coast of Taiwan, between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea.

In 2019, a team of Japanese and Taiwanese researchers succeeded in completing the two-day journey from Cape Wushibi in Taitung County to Yonaguni island along the Kuroshio current in a dugout canoe based on technology and materials from 30,000 years ago.

The first written record that ever mentions the island is a 1477 Korean document (Chosen Hyōryūmin no Yaeyama kenbunroku), an account of several fishermen from the current Jeju Province who drifted there.

As a result of increased tensions between Japan, China, and Taiwan over the disputed sovereignty of the Japanese-controlled uninhabited Senkaku/Diaoyu/Tiaoyutai Islands which are located roughly 80 nautical miles north-northeast of Yonaguni Island, Japan began construction in 2014 of a coastal monitoring / early warning station with radar and other sensors on Yonaguni to counter a perceived threat from Chinese forces.

[13] Separately, a joint (GSDF / ASDF) "mobile aircraft control & warning squadron" is planned to be formed and co-located at the station.

Additionally, an electronic warfare unit was deployed from Kumamoto Prefecture to Yonaguni "to jam or interfere with hostile forces' signals and radar stations".

It was said that if a regular ferry service was established, it would attract Taiwanese tourists to Yonaguni Island, which has a population of just 1,700, and Japanese visitors to Yilan.

Being a trope frequently used in Edo literary works, it not only appears at the end of The Life of an Amorous Man (好色一代男 Kōshoku Ichidai Otoko, 1682), but also dominates the second part of the five-section Strange Tales of the Crescent Moon (椿説弓張月 Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki, 1807–1811).

Out of all these early records about Yonaguni, one of the earliest and most influential writings was An expedition to the Southern Islands (Nantō tanken) by Sasamori Gisuke.

It takes only a few pennies for someone who enjoys accompaniment of beautiful women to have one of them in attendance during his stay provide drinks and serve him all night.

Murakami expresses his worries as well at the end, as the women here are all naturally beautiful and potentially they would attract those driven by sexual desire to explore "the hidden paradise".

[23] Nevertheless, these introductory essays aiming to bring an exotic taste are less specific than a quite comprehensive travel log by Yanagita Kunio, who was inspired by Sasamori's work and finally did his own research, An Account of the South Sea (Kainan shōki), published in 1925.

He provides a detailed written record of their customs and daily life, and writes about how they are busy farming, cooking, and taking care of children, with two photographs attached, wearing clothes not so much different from the rest of Japan.

[26] According to Japanese anthropologist Yousuke Kaifu, the island of Yonaguni can be seen with the naked eye from Taroko Mountain in Taiwan under good weather conditions.