I have seen two different ways people spell Okinawan or Okinawa. Which is correct way of spelling it. The dictionary has is spelled Okinawa
Bob:D

Okinawa is the country, Okinawan describes that which comes from Okinawa.

Most of the spell check on the computers I have used doesn't accept Okinawan as a word.
Why I don't know.

The country was actually the Ryukyu archipelago; Okinawa is just the biggest island and adminsitrative center. Ryukuan might be better than Okinawan but everyone uses the latter.

The Chinese version was something like 'Liuchue'.

Originally posted by arnisador

The country was actually the Ryukyu archipelago; Okinawa is just the biggest island and adminsitrative center. Ryukuan might be better than Okinawan but everyone uses the latter.

The Chinese version was something like 'Liuchue'.


No most of the time Okinawa is used in Japan unless they are referring to something pre-Meiji period when Okinawa was called Ryukyu.
Or they use it to make it more "ethnic" since Okinawans and Japanese are a different race.


There is a place in Okinawa called Ryukyu Mura (village) which has all the old style houses. Pretty interesting place if you can overlook the tourism stuff.

What is the actual name of the prefecture?

It's "Okinawa Ken"

Ken means prefecture.


It used to be called Ryukyu Okuni.........Kingdom of the Ryukyus.

It became a prefecture about the same time as Hokkaido in 1868~9 ish.


Oddly enough Okinawans weren't allowed to come to the main island of japan to work until the first part of the last century unless they had special permission.