List of lighthouses in Japan

This is a list of Japanese lighthouses.^[1][2][3]

The use of lighting for marine navigation in Japan dates back to 664 CE when it has been recorded that fires were built on the Iki Islands facing the Tsushima Strait to guide a diplomatic envoy arriving from China.^[4]

Modern Japanese lighthouse history dates back to 1854 when U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrived in Edo Harbor and signed the Convention of Kanagawa with the Tokugawa Shogunate, opening Japan to western trade, and precipitated similar agreements with other western countries stipulating the construction of 8 permanent lighthouses for safe navigation. French naval engineer Léonce Verny was engaged by the Meiji government to build the first lighthouse, completing the Kannonzaki Lighthouse in 1869. Noted Scottish civil engineer and lighthouse builder Richard Henry Brunton was brought in to take over the project in 1868, and is today known as the "Father of Japanese lighthouses" for his 26 lighthouses built over a 7 and a half year period.^[4]

Japanese engineer Fujikura Kentatsu trained under Brunton to build the first Japanese designed lighthouse in 1884 at Nangō in Miyazaki. Today, there are 67 Meiji-era lighthouses still active, many which have been designated as important cultural assets.^[5]

According to the Japan Coast Guard, the agency responsible for the maintenance and operation of official Japanese lighthouses, there are currently 3,118 active lighthouses in Japan as of March 2022.^[6]