Shiretoko

Declared in 1964, its name comes from the language of the Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido, and means the end of the earth, describing its remote position on the north-eastern tip of the island. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005 for representing an exceptional interaction between marine and land ecosystems: the sea ice that arrives each winter from the Sea of Okhotsk fertilises the coastal waters as it melts, supporting a food chain that runs from plankton up to orcas, and along the way one of the highest densities of Hokkaido brown bear in the world, with an estimated 600-plus on the peninsula.