History
Miyazaki holds an unusual dual identity: in Japanese mythology, it’s where the story of the nation itself is said to begin, and in 20th- century pop culture, it’s where a generation of Japanese couples went to pretend they were somewhere much further away.
Miyazaki and the wider world
That second identity is the more surprising one. In the 1960s and ’70s, before overseas travel was affordable or straightforward for most Japanese people, Miyazaki’s mild, palm-fringed coastline was marketed hard as a domestic substitute for an actual tropical honeymoon — hotels, attractions, and entire coastal developments leaned into a deliberately Polynesian-adjacent aesthetic, and the region became known nationwide, half-affectionately, as “Japan’s Hawaii.” The branding faded once international travel opened up and destinations like the real Hawaii became reachable, but Miyazaki’s surf culture and laid-back coastal identity have outlasted the marketing campaign that created them.
The older story runs through Takachiho, in Miyazaki’s mountainous interior, where local shrines and the dramatic gorge itself are woven into the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki — Japan’s oldest chronicles — as the place where the sun goddess Amaterasu’s grandson descended to earth, and where Japan’s legendary first emperor, Jimmu, is said to have begun the journey that founded the imperial line.
Neighbors: Miyazaki and Kagoshima
Miyazaki shares its subtropical climate and much of its coastal character with neighboring Kagoshima to the south, the two forming Kyushu’s warmest, most palm-and-volcano-inflected corner.
Getting there and getting around
Miyazaki Airport has domestic flights and is a short bus or train ride from central Miyazaki City; there’s no shinkansen connection. Takachiho, in the mountainous interior, is best reached by highway bus or rental car.
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