Yakushima

Protected since 1964 as part of another park, Yakushima became a national park in its own right in 2012. The island is celebrated for its yakusugi, Japanese cedars (Cryptomeria japonica) whose growth is extraordinarily slow on rocky, nutrient-poor ground, which has let some of them reach estimated ages of up to 7,000 years — among the oldest individual living things documented anywhere. The most famous is the Jomon Sugi, found in 1966. The island's forests helped inspire the look of the enchanted forests in Studio Ghibli's films, Princess Mononoke above all. It was one of Japan's first inscriptions on the UNESCO World Heritage list, in 1993.