Moving to Naha City

CHAPTER 01First, what kind of place Naha is

The prefectural capital, in the south of the Okinawa main island, facing the East China Sea. The population is 311,968 (150,893 men, 161,075 women) in 164,373 households — 1.90 people per household (end of July Reiwa 8, resident register). The city covers 41.46 km², the smallest of any city covered so far. 310,000 people live in a sixteenth of the area of Hakodate City and a nineteenth of Osaki City.

Map of Naha City

You can zoom and pan. The marker is Naha City Hall (Izumizaki). The point jutting into the sea at the lower left is Naha Airport, and the hill at the upper right is Shuri. The East China Sea is to the west (left); Tomigusuku City lies to the south, Haebaru and Nishihara to the east, and Urasoe City to the north.
Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors

Five areas, and the Yui Rail stations

The Yui Rail (the Okinawa Urban Monorail) has 19 stations in all. It runs from Naha Airport through the city, and only the terminus, Tedako-Uranishi, lies outside it (in Urasoe City). Sixteen stations, from Naha Airport to Ishimine, are within the city. ★ marks the stations that serve as interchanges or as places you have business. Positions, bearings and scale follow the actual coordinates (stations from OpenStreetMap, points from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan). You can scroll sideways.

CHAPTER 02Five areas, and life in each

Naha is a city of about 7 km east to west and 6 km north to south, yet within it elevations run from 3 m to 126 m and the median house price from ¥36,800,000 to ¥325,000,000. The older the ground, the higher the hill; the newer, the reclaimed land — that is how Naha is arranged.

CHAPTER 03Trains and cars — how you get around

Getting about in Naha rests on four things: the aeroplane, the Yui Rail, the bus and the car. The Yui Rail is the only railway, so everywhere else means bus and car. Of the 54 listings, 32 have a Yui Rail station as their nearest stop and 15 a bus stop.

To Tokyo, you fly

🔴 Air fares are not given here. For the same route they move from a few thousand yen to over ¥60,000 depending on when you book and which flight you take. When you come to look seriously, put your dates into an airline's booking site.

The Yui Rail — 19 stations in all, 16 within the city

The Okinawa Urban Monorail, the "Yui Rail", runs through the city as Naha Airport — Akamine — Oroku — Onoyama-Koen — Tsubogawa — Asahibashi — Kencho-mae — Miebashi — Makishi — Asato — Omoromachi — Furujima — Shiritsu-Byoin-mae — Gibo — Shuri — Ishimine, and then on to Kyozuka — Urasoe-Maeda — Tedako-Uranishi (all in Urasoe City). Nineteen stations, 12.9 km in all. Akamine is the southernmost station in Japan. Asahibashi station has Naha Bus Terminal, from which the buses for the rest of the Okinawa main island leave.

Naha is one of the cities in Japan most prone to traffic jams. With only the Yui Rail for a railway, a small area and a dense population, National Routes 58 and 330 fill up morning and evening. Whether a Yui Rail station is within walking distance is one of the dividing lines when choosing a house in Naha. The listings below can be sorted by distance from the station.

CHAPTER 04Homes actually on the market right now

SUUMO lists 54 second-hand detached houses. ¥11,800,000 to ¥500,000,000, median ¥53,490,000. 14 are at ¥30,000,000 or less. The 20 cheapest are shown here (the sort bar can also reorder them by elevation or by distance from the station).

"Nearest the station first" converts everything to minutes — a walk of ◯ min, ◯ min by bus plus ◯ min from the stop, ◯ km by car (reckoned at 30 km/h) — and compares those. Listings with no such information always appear last, whatever the sort.

Hantagawa 4-4-24¥11,800,000Mawashi (inland, around Shikina and Hantagawa)Elev. approx. 70 m / Land 138 m² (42 tsubo) / Building 65 m² (20 tsubo) / built 1963 / Shuri Sta. 25 min walk4 photos → Tsuboya 2-1-20¥12,500,000The centre (the prefectural office, Kokusai-dori and Tomari)Elev. approx. 10 m / Land 110 m² (33 tsubo) / Building 62 m² (19 tsubo) / built 1994 / Asato Sta. 10 min walk9 photos → Yorimiya 1¥16,800,000Mawashi (inland, around Shikina and Hantagawa)Elev. approx. 0 m / Land 81 m² (25 tsubo) / Building 93 m² (28 tsubo) / built 1979 / Asato Sta. 15 min walk10 photos → Yorimiya 1¥21,800,000Mawashi (inland, around Shikina and Hantagawa)Elev. approx. 0 m / Land 82 m² (25 tsubo) / Building 43 m² (13 tsubo) / built 1976 / 神原 bus stop 6 min walk8 photos → Matsugawa¥24,900,000Mawashi (inland, around Shikina and Hantagawa)Elev. approx. 20 m / Land 223 m² (67 tsubo) / Building 56 m² (17 tsubo) / built 2001 / Shiritsu-Byoin-mae Sta. 9 min walk6 photos → Matsugawa¥24,900,000Mawashi (inland, around Shikina and Hantagawa)Elev. approx. 20 m / Land 223 m² (67 tsubo) / Building 56 m² (17 tsubo) / built 2001 / 山川二丁目 bus stop 2 min walk2 photos → Uebaru 3-34-16¥27,000,000Oroku (the south-west, where the airport is)Elev. approx. 20 m / Land 144 m² (44 tsubo) / Building 37 m² (11 tsubo) / built 1997 / Akamine Sta. 5 min walk6 photos → Uebaru 3-34-16¥27,000,000Oroku (the south-west, where the airport is)Elev. approx. 20 m / Land 144 m² (44 tsubo) / Building 37 m² (11 tsubo) / built 1997 / Akamine Sta. 5 min walk9 photos → Nakaima¥27,800,000Mawashi (inland, around Shikina and Hantagawa)Elev. approx. 20 m / Land 161 m² (49 tsubo) / Building 100 m² (30 tsubo) / built 1973 / Nakaima bus stop 2 min walk8 photos → Hantagawa 1-15-32¥27,800,000Mawashi (inland, around Shikina and Hantagawa)Elev. approx. 30 m / Land 113 m² (34 tsubo) / Building 104 m² (31 tsubo) / built 1984 / Asato Sta. bus 18 min+1 min walk9 photos → Maaji¥27,900,000Mawashi (inland, around Shikina and Hantagawa)Elev. approx. 20 m / Land 129 m² (39 tsubo) / Building 42 m² (13 tsubo) / built 1969 / Shikinaen 前 bus stop 2 min walk10 photos → Shuri Ishimine-cho 2-47-3¥29,500,000Shuri (the old royal capital, up on the hill)Elev. approx. 120 m / Land 205 m² (62 tsubo) / Building 115 m² (35 tsubo) / built 1992 / Ishimine Sta. 8 min walk6 photos → Hantagawa 2-8-17¥29,800,000Mawashi (inland, around Shikina and Hantagawa)Elev. approx. 30 m / Land 182 m² (55 tsubo) / Building 151 m² (46 tsubo) / built 1974 / 石田中学校前 bus stop, 3 min walk7 photos → Shuri Tobaru-cho 2¥29,800,000Shuri (the old royal capital, up on the hill)Elev. approx. 80 m / Land 204 m² (62 tsubo) / Building 130 m² (39 tsubo) / built 1989 / Gibo Sta. 6 min walk10 photos → Shikina 1102番地27¥35,800,000Mawashi (inland, around Shikina and Hantagawa)Elev. approx. 60 m / Land 198 m² (60 tsubo) / Building 129 m² (39 tsubo) / built 1985 / Naha City 民体育館前 bus stop 9 min walk10 photos → Shuri Sueyoshi-cho 3¥35,800,000Shuri (the old royal capital, up on the hill)Elev. approx. 20 m / Land 231 m² (70 tsubo) / Building 149 m² (45 tsubo) / built 1979 / 末吉団地前 bus stop, 9 min walk3 photos → Shuri Sueyoshi-cho 3¥35,800,000Shuri (the old royal capital, up on the hill)Elev. approx. 20 m / Land 231 m² (70 tsubo) / Building 149 m² (45 tsubo) / built 1979 / Furujima Sta. 14 min walk9 photos → Uebaru 937¥36,800,000Oroku (the south-west, where the airport is)Elev. approx. 30 m / Land 118 m² (36 tsubo) / Building 113 m² (34 tsubo) / built 1975 / Oroku Sta. 18 min walk10 photos → Tabaru¥41,800,000Oroku (the south-west, where the airport is)Elev. approx. 30 m / Land 257 m² (78 tsubo) / Building 130 m² (39 tsubo) / built 1997 / 第二 Oroku bus stop 4 min walk10 photos → Shuri Ishimine-cho 4¥42,980,000Shuri (the old royal capital, up on the hill)Elev. approx. 100 m / Land 124 m² (38 tsubo) / Building 95 m² (29 tsubo) / built 1996 / Tedako-Uranishi Sta. 14 min walk9 photos →

The photographs are the images carried on SUUMO. They disappear once a listing ends. Check the real condition of a property on site.

Akiya bank

Naha City takes part in the national akiya bank (At Home), but there are no properties registered on it at present. Every property listed in this chapter is on the ordinary private market. (As verified on 17 August 2026)

CHAPTER 05Is the ground safe?

There are 3 things to check in Naha. Tsunami — the coastal strip falls inside the prefecture's designated tsunami warning zone, which estate agents are obliged to disclose. Storm surge and surface water — this is on the typhoon track, and with a small, heavily paved area, rainwater floods where it cannot drain. And shaking.

Is this town inside a national earthquake-preparedness zone?

For each major earthquake, national law designates the areas where preparation is to be advanced. Whether a town is designated tells you directly how the national government views the shaking and tsunami expected there.

Tsunami — Okinawa Prefecture has designated "tsunami warning zones"

On 27 March Heisei 30, under the Act on Development of Tsunami-Resilient Communities, Okinawa Prefecture designated 40 of its municipalities, all but Haebaru Town, as tsunami warning zones (the "yellow zone") (Yonaguni Town followed on 26 March Heisei 31). Naha City is designated. The prefecture explains the zones like this — "within a tsunami warning zone there are no restrictions on land use or development" and "where a property being transacted lies within a tsunami warning zone, the estate agent must disclose that fact to the other party as a material matter". In other words, if the plot falls inside a zone, the estate agent will always tell you before you sign. But you can check for yourself without waiting to be told. Alongside the designation, the reference water level has also been published — the height that serves as the basis for evacuation, being the inundation depth plus the rise caused by water striking buildings and the like.

The prefecture adds one more important caution — "beaches, ports, breakwaters, jetties and sea walls near the boundary of land and sea, along with rivers, channels and bridges, are not treated as land, so they may fall outside a tsunami warning zone even where a tsunami could reach them". Being outside a zone does not mean being safe. Note too that no tsunami special warning zones (orange and red zones), which carry building restrictions, have been designated anywhere in Okinawa Prefecture.

Storm surge and surface water — these are what tell in a typhoon

Naha City publishes its flood hazard maps (river flooding, surface water, storm surge) in four parts. River flooding covers three systems — the Ajagawa, the Asatogawa and the Kokubagawa — with storm surge and surface water in addition. In the city's own words, storm-surge flooding is "the sea level rising with a typhoon or a depression and inundating low-lying land", and surface-water flooding is "flooding caused by rain falling faster than the sewers can carry it away to the rivers, so that it cannot be drained". In Naha, small, paved and facing the sea, these two become a problem with every typhoon.

CHAPTER 06What summer and winter are like

There are no mornings below freezing in a Naha winter. On a long-term average there are 0 frost days a year, and 0 days below freezing all day. Even in January the mean daily low is 14.9°C. In exchange there are 107.3 tropical nights a year — for three and a half months the night does not fall below 25°C.

The twelve months of temperature, set out as they are

The left end of each bar is the average daily minimum for that month and the right end the average daily maximum (Naha, the 30-year average for 1991–2020).

What is hot is the night, not the day

Naha's summer is cooler than Tokyo's. There are 0.2 days a year at 35°C or above, far fewer than Tokyo's 4.8. Surrounded by sea, the daytime temperature never quite climbs. In exchange, it does not come down. There are 213.3 summer days a year — close to 60% of the year at 25°C or above. And 107.3 tropical nights. Cooling becomes something you run at night as well, all summer. For anyone moving from the main islands, this is where the arithmetic of the electricity bill changes most. Even within southern Okinawa, the nights change as you go inland. At Itokazu in Nanjo City there are 52.9 tropical nights a year, half of Naha's. The coastal town or the hill a little inland makes the difference to how the summer nights feel. Rain is 1.35 times Tokyo's, at 2,161.0 mm a year. This is also on the typhoon track. Whether there are storm shutters, and where the parking stands, are worth looking at when you view.

CHAPTER 07Shops, hospitals, schools

Where you are taken if you collapse in the night — in Naha, Naha City Hospital takes primary and secondary emergencies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and for anything graver the Okinawa Prefectural Nanbu Medical Centre and Children's Medical Centre (Haebaru Town) provides tertiary emergency care.

Hospitals — a 470-bed city hospital, inside the city

That the Yui Rail has a station called "Shiritsu-Byoin-mae" — in front of the city hospital — says something plain about medicine in Naha. You get there from the centre without changing. Tertiary emergency care, for anything life-threatening, is provided by the Okinawa Prefectural Nanbu Medical Centre and Children's Medical Centre in Haebaru Town, which covers the Naha and southern medical region and also holds the prefecture-wide comprehensive perinatal maternal and child medical centre (18 NICU beds, 24 GCU, 6 MFICU).

Shopping

Shopping in Naha comes in three layers. The first is the markets — the Daiichi Makishi Public Market (rebuilt and reopened in March 2023), the machiguwa arcades around it, and Sakaemachi Market at Asato. The second is the large stores — San-A Naha Main Place at Shintoshin, Aeon Naha at Oroku, and Naha Main Place. The third is Kokusai-dori. That the markets are still part of daily life is particular to Naha, and around Makishi and Asato on the Yui Rail there are still stalls selling by weight.

Schools

As the prefectural capital, everything from primary school to university is in the city. The Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts is at Shuri Tonokura, Okinawa University at Kokuba, Okinawa International University in neighbouring Ginowan City, and the University of the Ryukyus in Nishihara Town — all within reach by Yui Rail and bus. Schemes for families change from year to year, so check the current ones at the Naha City desk before you move (contact details in §14).

CHAPTER 08What it costs you every year after you buy

The thing to watch most closely in Naha is that the water charges are currently reduced. The city revised its tariff in April Reiwa 8 but at the same time waived the standing charge and cut the volumetric charge by ¥5 per m³. Both have an end date.

CHAPTER 09What happens when you want to sell

Naha has 54 second-hand detached houses. For a prefectural capital of 310,000 people that is an extremely thin market. From the seller's side there are few rivals; from the buyer's side there is little choice — in Naha both are true at once.

If you are thinking about the way out, look first at how many listings there are in that district. The number on the market now is the number of rivals you will have when you sell. The listings above can be filtered by district badge.

CHAPTER 10Who lives here, and how many

Naha City has 311,968 people in 164,373 households (end of July Reiwa 8). That is 1.90 people per household.

Naha's population is level. The 311,968 at the end of July Reiwa 8 is 3 more than the 311,965 of the month before. Households came to 164,373, 174 more than the month before — the people barely increase while the households keep on rising, which is the shape of Naha. It shows single-person households growing. This structure tells both when buying and when selling. Demand for renting is thick, and only 54 detached houses come onto the market. That is the sort of market it is.

Source: calculated by this site from the municipality-level tables of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, "Population, population change and households based on the Basic Resident Register" (as of 1 January Reiwa 8, published 2026-07-29). The ministry's publication page / verified 2026-08-17

CHAPTER 11Community life and the year's events

The year in Naha is marked off by the sea in May and the rope in October. Neither is a tourist event: the people of the city take part as the ones doing the carrying.

Neighbourhood association

Neighbourhood associations in Naha City are handled by the Citizens' Culture Department, Citizens' Life and Safety Division. Joining is voluntary, the subscription differs by association, and the city does not publish the amounts. You ask the association you are joining directly. Okinawa also keeps up moai — a widespread habit of mutual help in which a fixed circle of friends puts money in each month. You may be invited into one naturally at work or in the neighbourhood, so it helps to know what it is.

CHAPTER 12Things nearby that move land prices

What tells on land prices in Naha is neither wildlife damage nor waste sites. It is the return of US military land. In Naha, returned land has gone straight on to become new districts of the city.

The land that was returned is today's Shintoshin

In §2 the median for "Shintoshin and Omoromachi" came out at ¥325,000,000. This part of the city was originally the US Makiminato housing district. It was returned in 1987, went through land readjustment, and became Naha Shintoshin — the prefectural museum and art museum, large retail complexes and housing. It took more than 20 years from the return to the redevelopment, and it is now the dearest land in the city.

The one now waiting to be returned is the Naha Port Facility (the Naha military port)

The Naha Port Facility (commonly, the Naha military port) is a US installation of about 56 hectares inside Naha Port, just north of Naha Airport. Japan and the United States agreed on its full return in 1974, but the agreement carried the condition that a replacement be built in the Urasoe wharf district and the functions moved there first, and more than 50 years on it has still not been returned. The two governments agreed in 2013 on a return date of "FY2028 or later", but Okinawa Prefecture's own view is that, counting the procedures and the reclamation work for the relocation, the return will come no earlier than the late 2030s. What happens to those 56 hectares will keep telling on land prices in Naha for a long time. As Shintoshin showed, returned land becomes town. If you are looking for land in Oroku or the centre, how this plan moves is worth watching.

The words "Naha City" alone settle nothing about the land

Naha City is 41.46 km² — a size you could imagine walking across, and yet within it elevations run from 3 m to 126 m and median house prices from ¥36,800,000 to ¥325,000,000. When a property advertisement says only "Naha City", look first for the district name and the address. The hill at Shuri, the low ground of the centre, or Shintoshin built on returned land. That decides whether it falls in a tsunami warning zone, whether there are slopes, and what it costs. The listings on this page carry district badges and can be sorted by elevation, lowest or highest first.

The information on this site is gathered by an AI that visits primary sources — municipalities, the Japan Meteorological Agency, national statistics — on a regular cycle, and it is updated with a source and a date of verification attached.

CHAPTER 13What this place makes

What a place earns its living from shows up both at your dinner table and in your work once you live there. The amount raised through the hometown tax scheme is a rough measure of how many products a place has that people all over Japan choose.

What Naha makes, and the crafts it keeps

We have not yet been able to describe this place's local specialities

I (the AI) searched Naha City's official site and the tourism and produce association sites the municipality points to, but could not find an officially published list of local specialities (verified 20 August 2026).
This site is built by checking sources one at a time, so that the AI does not go and present something that is not true. Because no sourced information could be found, nothing is written here yet. It does not mean the place has no specialities, and we ask for your understanding.

CHAPTER 14A message from Naha City

How the receiving side sees it. Here are the town's own words and the schemes available now.

This section is transcribed as written on the municipality's own website. If an officer of the municipality sends us their own text, we will replace it. Get in touch here →

CHAPTER 15A year in Naha

What is in season, the festivals, and the temperature. Twelve months of living here, on one page.

The festival dates are from the announcements of the Naha Hari organising committee and the Naha Otsunahiki preservation society, and the temperatures from the JMA long-term averages (Naha station). Memorial Day is a holiday set by Okinawa Prefecture by-law. Before you move, come once on one of the days in this table.

CHAPTER 16The people who run this city

When you are thinking about moving, who is running this town and where they are taking it is, I think, something people about to move want to know even more than those already living there. This chapter sets out only what Naha City publishes itself, with sources. 🔴 As of 22 August 2026, following the official site, I (the AI) could find all 6 of the items below. The mayor of Naha City is Chinen Satoru (confirmed on Naha City's introduction page).

CHAPTER 17Where to go on a day off

It never shows up in the numbers you use to find a house, yet it bears directly on how satisfied you are once you live there: days off. This chapter counts, on the same measure for every area, the places you can go on a day off in Naha and the places friends and family can stay when they visit. The area currently has 1 hot spring and day bath facility. 🔴 All the counts are the number registered in the map data (OpenStreetMap) — in reality there may well be more.

Somewhere to stay — for family and friends, and for your own travels

This table is the result of me (an AI) putting the same question to the map data for every area (areas are retrieved in batches, so the verification date on some pages is a day apart). Facilities not registered on the map are not counted. "Not found" does not mean "there are none" — nor that the town is any the lesser for it.

Compare with other areas

Every page has the same 17 chapters in the same order. Move between them and you can compare the same line.

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