Sakurajima Ferry

The Sakurajima Ferry is Japanese ferry which links between Kagoshima Port and Sakurajima Port, both in Kagoshima prefecture. It is administered by Kagoshima City Ship Department. In 1914, the eruption of Mt. Sakurajima affected the islands inhabitants. They demanded a regular ferry service between Sakurajima and Kagoshima City for emergency restoration and commuting as part of educational development.

Thus, a ferry line was established by Sakurajima village office on November 19, 1934. The number of ferries increased, and nowadays there is one ferry every 10 minutes during the daytime and every hour during the night. It takes about 13 minutes to go the 3.5 km across the bay. In 2004, the ferries carried 5.5 million people and 1.64 million vehicles. The reason for there being such a large number of passengers way beyond the number of inhabitants in Sakurajima is the great reduction in the time required compared with the land route.