Okinawa Webcam – Watch Naha’s Kokusai-dori from Above

The Okinawa Webcam looks down on central Naha from the weather camera on the Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper building in Izumizaki, aimed east along a broad avenue toward the start of Kokusai-dori. Palette Kumoji, the home of the Ryubo department store, fills the left side of the frame above stepped, planted terraces and a white sail-shaped canopy over its plaza. The curved front of Naha City Hall closes the right side. In the middle, buses, taxis and vans cross a wide striped pedestrian crossing under a row of street trees, and the road runs on between tall blocks toward the shopping street. The camera faces away from the afternoon sun, so the clearest light comes after midday, and after dark the avenue becomes lines of headlights under orange street lamps.

Three more tabs sit beside the main view. Two belong to BAKUNOVISION, whose cameras hang above the sidewalk on Kokusai-dori and look both ways along the street. The Kencho Kitaguchi side faces west toward the Prefectural Office end, past a pedestrian crossing and the painted sign of the Paikaji Okinawan restaurant. The Asato side faces east past palm trees and a Don Quijote store toward the Asato three-way junction. The last tab is the Asahi Shimbun’s camera on the 10th floor of the Times Building in Kumoji, looking over the Kumoji River, where Yui Rail monorail trains run past the Okinawa Prefectural Office.

About Kokusai-dori and Central Naha

Kokusai-dori runs about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) from the intersection at Palette Kumoji, the corner this camera looks toward, to the Asato three-way junction in the east. The street rose so quickly from the ruins of the war that it became known as the Miracle Mile, a name that also fits its length. Kokusai means international, and it comes from the Ernie Pyle International Theater, a 1,000-seat cinema that opened on the street in 1948 and was named after the American war correspondent killed on Iejima in April 1945. Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, is home to more than 310,000 people.

The camera belongs to the Ryukyu Shimpo, which was founded on September 15, 1893 as the first newspaper in Okinawa. Its head office in Izumizaki 1-chome was completed in 2018, and the paper calls this feed its weather camera. By its own description, the view takes in the front of Naha City Hall, the intersection in front of the Prefectural Office, Kokusai-dori and Palette Kumoji. The same channel has also carried live coverage of typhoons approaching the island and of lunar eclipses over the city.

Palette Kumoji opened in April 1991 at the western end of Kokusai-dori. It has nine floors above ground and two below, with the Ryubo department store as its anchor, a cinema and a citizens’ theater on the ninth floor, and a garden on the roof. The white canopy on its plaza is the large roof added there in 2022.

Weather and Climate in Naha

Naha is subtropical and warm all year. The Japan Meteorological Agency’s 1991 to 2020 normals give January, the coolest month, an average daytime high of 19.8 C (67.6 F) and a night low of 14.9 C (58.8 F). April warms to 24.3 C (75.7 F) by day and 19.1 C (66.4 F) at night. July peaks at 31.9 C (89.4 F), with nights that average 27.0 C (80.6 F), and October still reaches 28.1 C (82.6 F) with lows of 23.5 C (74.3 F).

Rain totals 2,161 millimeters (85.1 inches) a year, and September is the wettest month at 275.2 millimeters (10.8 inches), when typhoon season adds to the summer storms. The early summer rainy season falls in May and June. On a wet afternoon the Okinawa Webcam can show the asphalt turning dark and glossy and umbrellas crowding the crossing. When a typhoon closes in, the avenue can empty almost completely.

Things to Do Near Kokusai-dori

The street in the distance is the main attraction. Kokusai-dori is Naha’s main tourist and shopping street, and on Sundays much of it closes to cars and fills with walkers and street performers. Palette Kumoji, on the left of the frame, is the obvious starting point: Ryubo on the lower floors, films at the ninth floor cinema, and the rooftop garden above the intersection. The Ryukyu Shimpo building itself holds a theater, the Ryukyu Shimpo Hall.

Further afield, Tsuboya, south of Kokusai-dori, was once a major center of ceramic production, and pottery shops still trade there. Shuri Castle, the former royal palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom, sits on a hill east of the center and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage listing, though much of what stands today has been restored and rebuilt. Naminoue Shrine stands in the old Wakasa district of the city.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Okinawa Webcam located?

On the Ryukyu Shimpo head office in Izumizaki 1-chome, central Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture on Okinawa Island in southern Japan. The building stands a block west of Palette Kumoji, where Kokusai-dori begins, and a short walk from the Prefectural Office and Naha City Hall.

What can you see on the Okinawa Webcam?

The main view looks east from a high floor along a wide avenue, with Palette Kumoji and its terraced plaza on the left, the curved front of Naha City Hall on the right, and a striped pedestrian crossing below. Traffic and buses run toward Kokusai-dori in the distance.

Does the Okinawa Webcam show a beach?

No. All four cameras on this page look at the streets of central Naha and the Kumoji River, and no beach or open sea is in view.

Can you check the weather in Okinawa on this webcam?

Yes, in a practical sense. The Ryukyu Shimpo runs it as its weather camera, so rain on the road, low cloud over the rooftops and the wind in the plaza trees all show up as they happen.

Does it snow in Okinawa?

Snow is not part of Naha’s climate. January, the coolest month, averages a daytime high of 19.8 C (67.6 F) and a night low of 14.9 C (58.8 F), so winter on the camera looks like a mild spring day.

Why is Kokusai-dori called the Miracle Mile?

The street was rebuilt so fast after the destruction of 1945 that it was said to have risen by a miracle, and at about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) it is also close to a mile long.

What do the other camera tabs show?

Two tabs are BAKUNOVISION’s street cameras on Kokusai-dori, one looking west toward the Prefectural Office end and one east toward the Asato three-way junction, with shoppers, crossings and shopfronts close up. The fourth is the Asahi Shimbun’s camera at its Naha bureau in the Times Building, over the Kumoji River and the Yui Rail line.

Is the Okinawa Webcam worth watching at night?

Yes. The avenue stays lit after dark, with orange street lamps, traffic lights, lit hotel signs and a steady flow of headlights toward Kokusai-dori.

Source: Ryukyu Shimpo, BAKUNOVISION and Asahi Shimbun LIVE