Yaeyama language in the context of "Hateruma"

The Yaeyama Islands (八重山列島 Yaeyama-rettō, also 八重山諸島 Yaeyama-shotō, Yaeyama: Yaima, Yonaguni: Daama, Okinawan: Yeema, Northern Ryukyuan: やへま Yapema) are an archipelago in the southwest of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and cover 591.46 square kilometres (228.36 sq mi). The islands are located southwest of the Miyako Islands, part of the Ryukyu Islands archipelago. The Yaeyama Islands are the most remote part of Japan from the main islands and contain Japan's southernmost (Hateruma) and westernmost (Yonaguni) inhabited islands. The city of Ishigaki serves as the political, cultural, and economic center of the Yaeyama Islands. On maps dating to the 1700s, the Yaeyama Group of Islands appears as the "Majico Sima Group", "Nambu-soto Islands", "Nambu Soto", and the "Taipin Islands".

The Sakishima Islands (Japanese: 先島諸島 / 先島群島, Hepburn: Sakishima-shotō / Sakishima-guntō; Okinawan: Sachishima; Miyako: Saksїzїma; Yaeyama: Sakїzїma; Yonaguni: Satichima) are an archipelago located at the southernmost end of the Japanese Archipelago. They are part of the Ryukyu Islands and include the Miyako Islands and the Yaeyama Islands. The islands are administered as part of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.

Yonaguni (Japanese: 与那国島, Hepburn: Yonaguni-jima; Yonaguni: Dunan-chima, older Juni-shima; Yaeyama: Yunoon-zïma; Okinawan: Yunaguni-jima), one of the Yaeyama Islands, is the westernmost island of Japan, lying between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea. A mere 107.4 kilometers (58.0 nmi; 66.7 mi) separate the island from Taiwan at their closest points. It is administered as the town of Yonaguni, Yaeyama Gun, Okinawa, and there are three settlements: Sonai, Kubura, and Higawa. There have been discussions to establish direct ferry services with Taiwan in order to bolster tourism.

The Southern Ryukyuan languages (南琉球語群, Minami Ryūkyū gogun) form one of two branches of the Ryukyuan languages. They are spoken on the Sakishima Islands in Okinawa Prefecture. The three languages are Miyako (on the Miyako Islands) and Yaeyama and Yonaguni (on the Yaeyama Islands, of the Macro-Yaeyama subgroup). The Macro-Yaeyama languages have been identified as "critically endangered" by UNESCO and Miyako as "definitely endangered".

All Ryukyuan languages are officially labeled as dialects of Japanese by the Japanese government despite mutual unintelligibility. While the majority of Ryukyuan languages have used Chinese or Japanese script for writing, the Yaeyama Islands never had a full-featured writing system. Islanders developed the Kaidā glyphs as a simple method to record family names, items, and numerals to aid in tax accounting. This system was used until the 19th century introduction of Japanese-language education. Even today, communication in the Yaeyama or Yonaguni languages is almost exclusively oral, and written communication is done in Japanese.

The Miyakoan language (宮古口/ミャークフツ Myākufutsu/Myākufutsї [mjaːkufutss̩] or 島口/スマフツ Sumafutsu/Sїmafutsї, Japanese: 宮古語, romanized: Miyako-go) is a diverse dialect cluster spoken in the Miyako Islands, located southwest of Okinawa. The combined population of the islands is about 52,000 (as of 2011). Miyakoan is a Southern Ryukyuan language, most closely related to Yaeyama. As of 2025, the number of competent native speakers is not definitively known. As a consequence of the Japanese government's Japanese language policy, which has traditionally referred to the language as 宮古方言 (Miyako hōgen), or simply a dialect of standard Japanese, it is not taught or used in schools. As a result, most people born after 1970 tend to not use the language except in songs and rituals, and the younger generation almost exclusively uses Japanese as their first language. UNESCO classified Miyakoan as a "definitely endangered" language in its Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger in February, 2009. The Endangered Languages Project currently classifies the language as "severely endangered."

Miyakoan is notable among the Japonic languages in that it allows non-nasal syllable-final consonants, something not found in most Japonic languages.

The Yonaguni language (与那国物言/ドゥナンムヌイ Dunan Munui) is a Southern Ryukyuan language spoken by around 400 people on the island of Yonaguni, in the Ryukyu Islands, the westernmost of the chain lying just east of Taiwan. It is most closely related to Yaeyama. Due to the Japanese policy on languages, the language is not recognized by the government, which instead calls it the Yonaguni dialect (与那国方言, Yonaguni hōgen). As classified by UNESCO, the Yonaguni language is one of the most endangered languages in all of Japan, after the Ainu language.

Ishigaki (Japanese: 石垣市, Hepburn: Ishigaki-shi; Yaeyama: Isïgaksï, Ishanagzï) is a city in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It includes Ishigaki island and the Senkaku Islands territory. The city is the political, cultural, and economic center of the Yaeyama Islands. New Ishigaki Airport serves the city. As of December 2012, the city has an estimated population of 48,816 and a population density of 213 persons per km. The total area is 229.00 km.

It is also the seat of the Senkaku Islands administration, those islands being part of the territory of the city.