The islands of the Seto Inland Sea

The Seto Inland Sea — the sheltered water between Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu — has more inhabited islands than any other stretch of Japan's coast: 110 in the SHIMADAS roster, across 8 prefectures, from Awaji with 134,717 people down to islets of 2. Three bridge systems cross it (Akashi–Naruto, Seto-Ōhashi, Shimanami), which means a handful of these islands you can drive or cycle to; the rest are boat-only, and the boats are short.

This is the Inland Sea slice of our table of every inhabited island in Japan. Same source — the SHIMADAS reference the Japan Islands Center publishes, never translated — same columns, one region.

The Inland Sea is the easiest place in Japan to island-hop, and the five below are the ones to learn it on: frequent boats, somewhere to eat, English on at least some signs. Then the table takes over.

Every inhabited island of the Inland Sea in the SHIMADAS roster, by prefecture. Sort by people or size, or type a name. "Read more" links to the English Wikipedia article where we could verify one.

• Ports that matter: Takamatsu (Naoshima, Shōdoshima, Megijima/Ogijima, Teshima), Uno in Okayama (Naoshima, Teshima), Onomichi and Imabari (the Shimanami islands, by bike or boat), Hiroshima and Miyajimaguchi (Miyajima, Ninoshima), Yanai and Iwakuni (the Yamaguchi islands), Kobe (Shōdoshima by jet-foil).
• Timetables are on the operator's site in Japanese; search the island's name plus 時刻表. Small islands get four to eight sailings a day, the last often before 18:00.
• Bikes: the Shimanami Kaidō (Onomichi–Imabari, about 70 km) is the one route where you can hop islands without a boat at all; rental stations at both ends and on the islands.
• Art festival years (Setouchi Triennale, next in 2028) triple the boats and the crowds on the Kagawa islands; every other year they are ordinary places again.
• Sleeping: Shōdoshima, Naoshima and Miyajima have hotels; almost everything else is a minshuku or nothing — book ahead and confirm dinner.