Japan
Hotspots

Known as migratory birds travelling between Australia and Japan, Little Terns (Sterna albifrons) are facing extinction. Every spring, 300 to 500 birds migrate to one of Japan's largest surviving colonies located in Atsugi, Kanagawa.This colony is now seriously threatened by roadworks planned for the area.

We may protect the Little Tern colony, please write your views and mail them to the addresses mentioned in the above (very slow-loading) page. It is the only form of bargaining power we have left. Your letter may help save the Little Terns.

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....Birds and Birding in Japan - by Koji Tagi. Japan is located in far 
east of Eurasian Continent. The relatively small island country is a home for surprisingly many birds. Approximately 600 species of birds have been recorded in the country. The country also has many endemic species. Most of birds in Japan are migratory. Many of ducks, geese, cranes and finches are winter migrants. On the other hand, flycatchers, robins and terns are mostly summer migrants. Don't miss this page on locations for birding! 
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....Lake Utonai Bird Sanctuary, Japan - In May, 1981, the Wild Bird
Society of Japan designated Lake Utonai and its surrounding marshland covering 511hectares as a Bird Sanctuary, the nation's first of its kind, for the purpose of preserving nature and the wildlife. 
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....Tateyama Wild Bird Sanctuary - located in the center of the Minami
Boso National Park, at the tip of the Boso Penninsula. Covering an area of 22.4 hectares, this park is made up of a wide belt of evergreen trees, and functions as both a nature preserve and public recreation area.
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....Introduction to Shiokawa Tidalflat - one of the representative
waders-watching sites in JAPAN. Land area is about 280ha and it is surrounded by wet field (rice field), dry fields,  pond, and marsh. Various habitats support many kinds of birds.So far 250 species have been recorded in this area. Shiokawa tidalflat is located in MIKAWA bay. The link to the homepage offers additional information.
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....Lake Akkeshi - Bekanbeushi Marsh - One of Japan's RAMSAR sites.
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....Kushiro Marsh - Kushiro Marsh is located in eastern Hokkaido, 
the northernmost island of Japan's four main islands, and separated from the Pacific Ocean by Kushiro city.Kushiro Marsh is one of the most important habitats for boreal wildlife in Japan. For photos of the marsh, see this site. 
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....The Syunkunitai Wild Bird Sanctuary - Syunkunitai is known as a
important habitat for birds and a quite famous bird-watching area throughout Japan. Syunkunitai is a long and narow sandbank where has 8km in length and 1.3km in width. It is surrounded by the water and has various natural habitats as the stream, marsh, grassland and deciduous forest etc., therefore various species of birds, animals, insects and plants can live in here. About 250 species of birds have been recorded and endangered species as Red-crowned Cranes, White-tailed Eagles and Black Woodpeckers breed in Syunkunitai.
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....Kaga-city Kamoike Sanctuary - Kamoike is about 4 km. north-west
of Daishoji in Kaga city. In the west, there is a sand ground and in the north-east a pine woods.In the best season, 20 thousand birds come here to stay. In June 1993, it was appointed as a wetland on RamSar Convention list and accepted by the people in the world. We should be wise enough to preserve this site and have the feeling of loving nature and living with it.
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....Japanese Bird Observations by Fer-Jan de Vries -
I like birdwatching. This site contains descriptions of sites and some lists of birds from the Kanto area in and around Tokyo.
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....Yatsu Higata Nature Observation Center, Narashino City. - 
Yatsu Higata is well known for numerous sandpipers and plovers throughout the country. Yatsu Higata Nature Observation Center is fully equipped to help study about Yatsu Higata and birds flying into there.  Also, experienced staffs give the visitors tutorial briefing. You can see the entire Tideland through the Observation Windows on the first floor at the Center.
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....Teuri Island Seabird Information Centre - the largest breeding area
of the Rhinocerous Auklet in the world! Also, under the topics of "nature observation course", there are a number of detailed itineraries for bird viewing on this island off Japan. 
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....Birdwatching in Aomori - this site describes the locations and
bird lists for several sites visited by the local birdwatching club in Aomori. 
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....The Web site for Birding - "I serected the cool web site
which was informed a suitable spot to watch Japanese wild bird. Since these web site are written by English, you can use the information from these site, even if you can't show Japanese character." Lots of good site links and a map of Japan showing locations.
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....The Annotated Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance -
brief information is available on:
• Akkeshi-ko & Bekambeushi-shitsugen
• Biwa-ko
• Izu-numa & Uchi-numa
• Katano-kamoike
• Kiritappu-shitsugen
• Kushiro-shitsugen
• Kutcharo-ko
• Manko
• Sakata
• Utonai-ko
• Yatsu-higata
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....Japan - Directory of Wetlands of International Importance - 
includes information on some of Japan's Ramsar designated sites, including:
• Kushiro-shitsugen
• Izu-numa and Uchi-numa
• Kutcharo-ko
• Utonai-ko
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....Trip Report: Tokyo, Japan, July 31 - August 4, 1994 - by Urs Geiser.
This is the second part of my report from a business trip to East Asia. The birding was entirely urban, in parks within central Tokyo. The weather was extremely hot (90-103 deg F) and quite humid during my stay. All these factors, and the short time I was able to devote to birding, contribute to the relatively meager account. Time constraints prevented me from visiting the Yacho Koen bird park near Haneda Intl. Airport, where I should have been able to find shorebirds.
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....Trip Report: Japan Fall Migration, September-October 1996 by 
Peter Lonsdale. A business meeting in Tokyo pulled me away from Fall migration in Southern California, so to compensate I took time off for my first glimpses of bird movement along the other side of our ocean (and my first looks at some of the local residents). Principal birding destinations were Hegura Island (Oct 3-5), Cape Irago and the nearby Shiokawa mudflats (Sept 28), and, around Tokyo, the Tama river and estuary and Yatsu mudflat (Oct.7). I also walked around two low mountain forest regions, near Lake Ashi in the Hakone district (Sept.29) and Karuizawa (Oct.6), and dropped in on two inner Tokyo parks (Ueno and Meiji Shrine). Overall, I had a good time, saw a good cross-section of the Japanese countryside and Japanese birds, missed several species I should have seen, and was clearly too late in the year for the major shorebird migration. These notes and list probably won't be much use to the hard-core birder planning a comprehensive search for Japanese endemics and migrants, but might be useful to those (like me) with a few days to spare after business in the concrete nightmare of Tokyo. 
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....Trip Report: Tokyo (Japan), December 4-6, 1996 by Francis Toldi. 
In early December of 1996 I squeezed a few hours of birding into a business trip to Tokyo Japan. Later in the same trip I was able to spend an entire day birding in Singapore. Business or stopover travelers to Tokyo can spend an enjoyable few hours birding right in central Tokyo.
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....Trip Report: Japan -  December, 1996 - by Susan Myers. During my 
short stay in Osaka I managed to get out to a few nearby places in search of birds although my time was a bit limited. Things were also rather quiet in the forested areas due to my timing and location but there seemed to be no shortage of waterfowl - just no Baikal Teal or Mandarin Duck that I could find. This is just a quick rundown on some of the birding I did there over two weeks.
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....Trip Report: Kyoto and Arasaki (Japan), January 1997 by Haynes 
Miller. The first thing to say about winter birding in Japan is that there are lots of birds around. Business in Kyoto left me time for morning birding in the immediate area, and in a week I found 55 species. Then I travelled to the Arasaki Crane Reserve in the southern island of Kyushu and spent an intensive two days of birding (72 species). The Japanese total was 88 species, 49 new to me (as they would be to most who have not birded east Asia). 
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....Trip Report: Tokyo, Okazaki, Kyoto (Japan), March 4-12, 1997 by
Urs Geiser. I had the opportunity to visit Japan in order to present a paper at a scientific conference in Okazaki, a medium-sized city southeast of Nagoya. I spent three days there and was able to add three more days for sight-seeing and birding. These I spent in Kyoto, where I also met with scientists at the university. This was my second visit to Japan, but on the first one, in August 1994, I only saw Tokyo. Because of the location and the season, my previous birding experience in Japan was pretty slim. 
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....Trip Report: Japan, June 1997 by Garry George. Japan has 
become a second home to me over the last fifteen years of business and pleasure trips, learning the language, meeting and visiting friends, and travelling throughout the country. As a newly converted birder, the last three trips have included extensive birding itineraries, and of course all future trips will as well. 
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....Trip Report: Japan, August 15 - 28, 1997 - by Harry Lehto. This trip
report identifies the key sites and birds seen, as well as a lot of useful information about the country generally.
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....Trip Report: Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu (Japan), 
November-December 1997 by Barnaby Briggs. All via hire car from
Kushiro Airport, and you need read no Japanese as all the signs are in English. All you need is a half decent road map. Driving is easy, there is no traffic, and the mountains and sea mean you have to try quite hard to get lost. 
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....Trip Report: Japan, June 10-21, 1998 by Johan Lindén.
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....Trip Report: Japan, December 2-11, 1998 by John Anderson.
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....Trip Report: Hokkaido (Japan), March 12-14, 1999 by James
Yurchenco. As my spouse, Amy, and I both had to travel to Japan for business reasons, we took the opportunity to schedule a bit of birding in as well. Since it is still winter in Hokkaido, and the Red-crowned (Japanese) Cranes congregate there in one of the world's great wildlife spectacles, we decided to head to the northernmost of the four main Japanese islands. 
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....Trip Report: Tokyo - Ogasawara (Bonin Islands) Passage, March 1-5,
1999: On the Slow Boat to Hahajima - by Jim Hackett. The Ogasawara or Bonin Islands form the tip of a volcanic archipelago that arcs for about 1000km south of Tokyo Bay. Two of the islands (Chichijima and Hahajima) are inhabited, and are served irregularly by a venerable freighter, the Kyoshu Maru no. 28. 
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....Trip Report: Tokyo and Environs (A Cheap Week in Japan), 
April 8-15, 1999 by Pete Shen & Mary Seeger. We were fortunate to visit Japan on a frequent flier award, but were faced with budget limitations in this notoriously expensive country. There is a dearth of information that would help the birder reduce expenses in Japan. We managed however to get around to a few sites and see some great birds for $350 per person for the week. We hope that the following information helps the next budget birder's visit to Japan. 
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....Trip Report: Japan, May 24 - June 21, 1999 by Jim Danzenbaker. 
It was my first trip to anywhere near this part of the world and, therefore, it was an all around learning experience. I visited Mt. Fuji, the Izu and Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands, Southeastern Hokkaido, and extreme northern Honshu. There is still plenty of Japan left to be visited in the future. 
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....Trip Report: Japan, October 4-12, 1999 by Neil Money. This was
a fairly intensive business trip that gave very little time for birding. However, I was able to tag a couple of days leave on to the end of the trip before returning and chose to undertake the ferry trip to Tomakomai in the hope of seeing seabirds. Although the number of species seen was not large this report may give a flavour of what is possible for other birders planning short business trips based on Tokyo. See also Neil's September 2000 trip report. 
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....Japan Trip Report - by Tony Coatsworth. May 9, 2000 - June 6, 2000.
Our aim was to do a lot of sight-seeing as well as birding so we had to forgo such treats as dancing Cranes and Stellar's Sea-Eagles on ice-floes which are winter specialities. We timed our trip to see some of the summer migrants but to miss the summer rainy season and fog in Hokkaido. On reflection we should have been in Furen-ko the second week in June when the Locustella warblers arrive in numbers.
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....More Japanese Trip Reports - you can find additional Japanese Trip
Reports on John Girdley's Birdtours site.  


Factoids taken from Where to watch birds in Asia  - by Nigel Wheatley

**..Bering Sea Cruise with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT). 
The opportunities for seabirds and landbirds on this cruise are fantastic. The Kuril Islands, Kamchatka Peninsula, plus the Bering Sea and the Pribilof Islands are among the places you dream of in your wildest fantasies. Now with VENT and the advent of expedition cruise ships, you can enjoy the opportunity of witnessing one of the wildest, most spectacular places on our planet, and all from the comfort of a beautifully appointed ship, Society Expedition's World Discoverer. 
• May 24 - June 11, 2001 (19.0 days - Limit 56) with leaders Victor Emanuel, Robert Bateman, David Bishop, Lars Jonsson, Kenn Kaufman, Peter Kennerley, Peter Mathiessen, and Barry Zimmer. 
VENT offers nearly 140 tours to over 100 land-based destinations each year and is the largest tour company in the world specializing in birding and natural history.
**..Japan in Summer with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT). 
During the early summer of 2001, VENT will offer the most comprehensive ever bird tour of the Japanese Archipelago. Here, among one of the most fascinating of the world's cultures and amidst some its most enchanting landscapes, we will seek out a plethora of exciting and, by westerners, rarely seen Japanese endemic birds and mammals. Needless to say, time will be set aside to see the best of Japan's cultural heritage. 
• Japan in Summer - June 08 - July 04, 2002 (27.0 days - Limit 11) with leaders David Bishop and Peter Kennerley
**..Japan in Winter with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT). 
Japan, that most enigmatic of nations, in winter hosts some of the greatest ornithological spectacles on our planet. You will watch transfixed as thousands of Hooded and White-naped cranes, together with occasional Common, Demoiselle, Sandhill and possibly even the globally-endangered Siberian cranes, congregate at Arasaki on the island of Kyushu. Surely there can be no more beautiful scene on earth. Japan is a notably mountainous archipelago still largely covered in beautiful forests that support a host of very special birds that are best seen in winter.
• February 09 - February 23, 2002 (15.0 days - Limit 10) with leaders David Bishop and Peter Kennerley

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