Ogasawara Islands

Declared a national park in 1972 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011, the Ogasawara Islands — nicknamed the Galápagos of the Orient — have never been geologically connected to the Asian mainland, which has produced an exceptional evolutionary endemism. They can be reached only by a 24-hour ferry crossing from Tokyo, with no working commercial airport, a restriction on access that has proved central to protecting their biodiversity from the mass tourism pressure usual at other Japanese island destinations.