Practical

Links

GENERAL INFORMATION ON DIVING IN JAPAN

NPO Japan Diving Experience’s Dive In Japan’s website, one of the most extensive references on Japanese diving, and offering support to help non Japanese-speakers organise dive trips in Japan
Includes comprehensive info on areas of interest and Japanese marine life as well as advice pages and 
Dive in Japan’s dive site per prefecture database

This is the NPO’s older website

The Japan National Tourism Association (JNTO)’s JAPAN DIVING website is another fantastic official resource aimed at promoting diving in Japan, with a very extensive guide

Marine Diving’s English language features on Japanese diving area

Marine diving is one of Japan’s leading diving-related publications, and these English language articles feature great practical information on different diving areas in Japan, including Marine Diving’s English pages on recommended Japanese dive spots.

An older, no-longer updated information site is japandiver.com

The SSI website features good information on diving in Japan

Japan.travel entries on scuba diving in Japan

References

  • Articles on diving in Japan
  • Blogs
  • Podcasts
  • Youtube and playlists
  • Books
  • People
  • Photographers and videographers
  • Online magazines
  • Marine Diving English pages
  • Japanese language dive publications/blogs

Highlights

  • Freshwater and lake diving
  • Ice diving
  • Wreck diving
  • Dive cruises in Japan
  • Ama freedivers
  • Remote islands of Japan

Conservation

  • Japanese biodiversity​
  • 2011 tsunami rehabilitation
  • Best practices
  • Coral
  • Manta rays
  • Turtles
  • Dolphins
  • Shark finning and shark fin soup
  • Cetacean captivity
  • Tetrapods
  • Aquaculture
  • DIVE SITES
  • DIVE CENTERS (English-friendly)
  • HOKKAIDŌ
  • HONSHŪ
  • TŌHOKU
  • Volunteering efforts
  • KANTŌ
  • Izu Islands
  • Ogasawara Islands
  • CHŪBU
  • Izu Peninsula
  • Mikomoto
  • Toyama Bay
  • KANSAI
  • CHŪGOKU
  • SHIKOKU
  • KYŪSHŪ
  • Satsunan Islands
  • OKINAWA
  • Okinawa Main Island
  • Kume
  • Kerama
  • Miyako
  • Ishigaki
  • Iriomote
  • Yonaguni

Organisations

  • Diving agencies in Japan
  • Other diving associations in Japan
  • Technical diving in Japan
  • Dive Safety in Japan
  • Freediving in Japan
  • Snorkeling in Japan
  • World fairs and expos

GENERAL PRACTICAL INFO ON JAPAN

  • Japanese holidays
  • Weather in Japan
  • Driving in Japan
  • Insurances
  • Safety and health in Japan
  • Japan's gift culture
  • General tourism in Japan ressources

GENERAL INFO

  • Diving Safety
  • Human Factors in Diving
  • Other diving blogs (not specifically on Japan)
  • Friends
  • Other

BLOGS WITH ENTRIES ON DIVING IN JAPAN

Bonnie Waycott’s Rising Bubbles blog hasn’t been updated for a while, but is full of information on diving in Japan based on Bonnie’s personal experiences across the archipelago.

Florine Quirion’s World Adventure Divers blog has great entries on diving in Japan

Corinne Loves Nature

Twowanderingsoles.com’s ultimate Guide to Okinawa diving and beyond

Worldnomads.com’s 5 best dive sites in Japan

Diveoclock.com’s pages on diving in Japan

PODCASTS / VLOGS

Chris Mitchell’s interviews Tim Rock on his Dive Happy Podcast on diving in Japan

Kirin Sekito’s Salty Life series and Lifestyle vlogs [mostly in Japanese language]

YOU TUBE CHANNELS AND PLAYLISTS ON DIVING IN JAPAN

BLUE JAPAN’s YouTube playlist offers a selection of videos on diving in Japan, that will be expanded in the near future

 FACEBOOK GROUPS ON DIVING IN JAPAN

 NPO Japan Diving experience’s Facebook group, with great pictures of Japanese diving, especially Osezaki’s macro / deep-water critter sightings

Sylvie Omnès’ Plonger au Japon Facebook group in French, English and Japanese

BOOKS ON DIVING IN JAPAN

The 50 Best Dive Sites In Japan: The Ultimate Guide to the Essential Sites
– by Tim Rock and Noriyuki OtaniBook presentation available on Blurb | Amazon.com

PEOPLE

Bonnie Waycott was one of the most productive diving bloggers and source of English language diving-related  material on Japanese diving.
Here is an interview:  Bonnie Waycott.com – interview with Japan’s Diver magazine

Noriyuki Otani is Tim Rock’s co-author of 50 Best Dives In Japan and has lots of information on diving in Japan. See Noriyuki Otani’s website and Facebook page

 Tim Rock interviewed on Dive Happy Podcast

PHOTOGRAPHERS AND VIDEOGRAPHERS IN JAPAN

Here is a small selection of Japanese underwater photographers and videographers:

Ikuo NAKAMURA

Hideki ABE

Jun SHIMIZU

Takaji OCHI

Hiroyuki TOMURA

Sachi MURAI

Tamaki OZAKI

Takuya NAKAMURA

JAPANESE DIVE PUBLICATIONS / BLOGS

Major Japanese dive publications include:
Marine Diving (which includes their magazine for female divers, La Scuba)
Diver Magazine
Oceana is currently one of the most active Japanese-language  blogging / info platforms on diving, related activities and the sea.

Agent WTP’s Official World Explorer blog on marine travel

Divingpoint.net has an extensive list of Japanese dive sites

 

FRESHWATER AND LAKE DIVING IN JAPAN

ICE DIVING IN JAPAN

WRECK DIVING IN JAPAN

LIVEABOARD DIVE CRUISES IN JAPAN

 Stingray Cruises organise boat trips and short liveaboard cruises around northern Kyūshū’s Genkai Sea and Saikai area (islands of Okinoshima, Iki islands, and Gotō islands), as well as south Kyūshū’s Satsunan Islands.

Their Satsunan Island operations, Tokara Discovery Cruises, offer 3, 4, 5 and 7 night exploratory cruises around the Tokara islands / Satsunan archipelago area, but for logistical reasons, this is probably still off-the-map for non-Japanese speakers.

Stingray (Discovery) Cruises

Tokara Discovery Cruises

Marine-p.com

24north.co.jp

Miraie, Japanese government-owned tall ship

AMA DIVERS IN JAPAN

REMOTE ISLANDS AND REMOTE AREAS OF JAPAN

CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGY IN JAPAN

Japan’s biodiversity

The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) 2010 report on Japanese biodiversity : “Marine Biodiversity in Japanese Waters
Click here for more details on JAMSTEC research

Earth Blogs entry on fisheries of Japan

A 2010/2011 White Paper on Fisheries of Japan 

An article on Marine Biodiversity in Japanese Waters

Fish ID databases

Post-2011 tsunami rehabilitation efforts

Best practices

Green Fins is initiative that protects and conserves coral reefs through environmental guidelines that promote a sustainable diving and snorkelling industry.
The following conservation tools and infographic posters highlighting best practices for operators are available for free download in multiple languages, including English, Japanese and French.

These include downloadable posters in English and Japanese on best practices for diving and snorkelling and underwater photography

Green Fins Japan: reaching out to new diving cultures in Tokyo

Coral

The Japanese Ministry of the Environment has a collection dedicated references on coral in Japan and conservation issues accessible here:  http://www.env.go.jp/nature/biodic/coralreefs/reference/contents.html

Download an MOE report on coral in Japan

Maria Beger Pages on surveys of tropical to temperate coral reefs of Japan

Coral Reef MPAs and Conservation Program in Japan

 30% of the world’s northernmost coral reef on Tsushima Island was damaged in a 2015/2016, bleaching event

Good information on the impact of sunscreen on coral reefs and the marine environment is available on this NOAA article on Skincare Chemical and Coral Reefs

National Geographic also has a good article here

Good information can also be found on coral.org and on the savethereef.org, and downloadable information posters on sunscreen are available in multiple languages on Green Fins’ action centre here .

Information posters on good practices near coral reefs are also available here.

Manta rays and human interaction

Information on giant “oceanic” manta ray sightings in the Ogasawara/Bonin islands can be found here

Good information on the impact of human interactions on manta rays is available on mantatrust.org ‘s site, and the Marine Megafauna Foundation has an information video here. You can also refer to code of conduct for interactions such as the one proposed by Mantawatch.com or others here or here

Turtles

Umigame.org is a Japanese N.P.O. focusing on Japan’s “sea” turtle populations.
Most of their material is in Japanese, but some English language pages exist.

Dolphins

The Miyake branch of the Dolphin Communication Project tracks the pods of dolphins

that live around Miyake island (Izu Islands, Tōkyō Metropolis)

Tetrapods

Resources on tetrapods and concrete landscaping of Japanese coasts are available here and here, here and here

Shark finning and shark fin soup

Good resources include wildaid.org or the WWF , sharks.org pages on finning and there is also a dedicated Facebook group here

Cetacean captivity

Good resources include Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project and associated Facebook group or Empty the Tanks and associated FB group, or related Sea Sheperd campaigns

Aquaculture

Organisations

DIVING AGENCIES IN JAPAN

As in most Asian countries, Japanese diving is primarily done under the influence of the RSTC framework.
The RSTC, or WRSTC, stands for World Recreational Scuba Training Council, and is an organisation created in 1999 to establish common minimum recreational diving training standards for its affiliated scuba diving certification agencies.
Most of the affiliated agencies are North American-based, commercial associations such as PADI, SSI, SDI or NAUI, sharing unified training standards and certification levels (Open Water Diver, Advanced Open Water Diver, Rescue Diver, Divemaster etc…).

Looking at World Recreation Scuba Training Council (RSTC) affiliated agencies, PADI is the market leader – PADI Asia-Pacific’s Japan branch has issued more than 2 million certifications in the country since the first international office was established in Tōkyō in 1979, which gives it the second place for country with the most PADI-certified divers in the world.

NAUI is also quite represented in Japan, being the oldest RSTC agency established in the country (1970), and, as elsewhere in Asia, SSI dive-shop affiliations are on the rise, as is the SDI/TDI presence in the country (appreciated for its handy links to the TDI tech diving curriculum)

Japan also has a number CMAS affiliated diving federations, including:
the Japan-CMAS (JCS),
the CMAS Instructor Association Japan (JCIA),
the Japan Educational Facilities Federation  (JEFF),
the Kansai Sports Diving Federation Japan  (KD Japan),
the Marine Techno Educational System Diving Division  (MTES)

and the Japan Underwater Sports Federation  (JUSF), focussing on underwater sports activities.

Sharing similar standards to those of CMAS (of once it was once a member), the BSAC is also has an active presence in Japan.

OTHER DIVING ASSOCIATIONS IN JAPAN

Other than agencies, other diving related initiatives in Japan include the rather unique
Scuba Diving Guide Association (Guide-Kai) dedicated to the promotion of Japan’s famous scuba-guides
or the Japan Scuba Diving Association,
and also an association for professional divers, the Japan Dive Association (JDA).

DAN JAPAN’S English language site

TECHNICAL DIVING IN JAPAN

On the technical diving front, other then the previously RSTC agencies’ tech diving curriculums and mentioned SDI/TDI, you’ll find some GUE and IANTD communities and training options.

Divezonetokyo.com is particularly technical diving-friendly, especially in the services offered by their Osezaki operations.

 

FREEDIVING IN JAPAN

On the freediving side of things, other than the freediving curriculums offered by RSTC scuba-agencies, you’ll find an AIDA federation,

the Japan Apnea Society (JAS).

There is also an Apnea Academy affiliated operations, or the freediving section of the CMAS affiliated Japanese UW sports federation for instance, and freediving will no doubt be growing in Japan as it is elsewhere.

Japanese freediving champion Ryuzo SHINOMIYA runs an AIDA school based on Okinawa Main Island, called apnea works. They organise freediving training sessions and tours, including to the Ogasawara Islands

DIVE SITE LISTS

Dive in Japan’s dive site per prefecture database

Divingpoint.net has an extensive list of Japanese dive sites (in Japanese)

LINKS ON DIVING IN HONSHŪ

ENGLISH-FRIENDLY DIVE CENTRES IN JAPAN

GENERAL PRACTICAL INFO ON JAPAN

JAPANESE HOLIDAYS

WEATHER IN JAPAN

Japan Meteorological Agency website

The Japan Meteorological agency offers information on Japanese weather and climate here and here

DRIVING IN JAPAN

It is possible to translate one’s national licence (required to drive in Japan for countries adhering to the 1968 Convention on Road Traffic) in a day at a local Japan Automotive Federation (JAF) office for a few thousand yen.
More on this process, and on driving in Japan here and here.

INSURANCES

DAN JAPAN’S English language site

DAN World

DiveAssure

General travel insurances covering recreational diving:

WorldNomads

SafetyWings

SAFETY AND HEALTH IN JAPAN

Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) has the following page on safety recommendations and the following guidelines when feeling ill in Japan

DAN JAPAN’S English language site

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