What Is the Village Built Inside an Active Volcano in Japan?

Aogashima: A Village Inside an Active Volcano

Aogashima is a remote Japanese island village where fewer than two hundred people live inside the crater of an active volcano, located 358 kilometres south of Tokyo in the Philippine Sea.

Where Exactly Is Aogashima?

Despite its extreme isolation, Aogashima is officially administered as part of Tokyo, making it the most remote village under Tokyo’s governance. It sits in the Philippine Sea among the Izu Islands, a volcanic chain stretching south from the Japanese capital. Getting there is notoriously difficult — a helicopter or ferry service operates to the island, but rough seas cancel the ferry more than half the time, sometimes leaving residents cut off for weeks.

A Volcano Within a Volcano

What makes Aogashima genuinely unlike anywhere else on Earth is its double-volcanic structure. The entire inhabited area sits inside the outer caldera of a large volcanic crater. Rising from the crater floor is a second, smaller volcanic cone called Maruyama — a volcano growing inside another volcano. Residents live between these two geological forces, on land shaped entirely by eruption and reformation over thousands of years.

The 1785 Eruption That Emptied the Island

Aogashima’s history carries the weight of catastrophe. In 1785, a violent eruption killed approximately half of the island’s population — around 130 to 140 people. The survivors were forced to evacuate to the neighbouring island of Hachijojima, and Aogashima sat uninhabited for roughly fifty years. In what is one of the more remarkable acts of collective human determination, the islanders eventually returned and rebuilt. The same people, the same community, choosing the same volcano.

Geothermal Cooking and Daily Life

Life on Aogashima is deeply intertwined with the geology beneath it. Steam vents from geothermal activity rising through the volcanic rock, and residents have long used this natural heat to cook food. Small huts over steam vents function as communal cooking stations — sauna-like structures where the volcano itself becomes infrastructure. The island also uses this geothermal energy in other practical ways, making the volcano less a threat to daily life and more a reluctant utility provider.

Is Aogashima Still Dangerous?

Yes. The Japan Meteorological Agency continuously monitors Aogashima for volcanic activity. The island remains classified as an active volcano, and a significant eruption would threaten everyone living there. Evacuation plans exist, but the island’s remoteness makes rapid emergency response genuinely difficult. The residents are aware of the risk. They stay anyway — a population that has already survived one catastrophic eruption in living memory and chose to return.

Why Do People Still Live There?

The people of Aogashima are descendants of those who came back after 1785. The island has its own microclimate, its own culture, and a quiet insularity that defines life far from the mainland. Population has been declining for decades, but a core community remains. For them, Aogashima is not defined by its danger — it is simply home.