Okinawa Urban Monorail

The line is the prefecture's first railway since the Second World War. Okinawa had been served by the Okinawa Prefectural Railway, a narrow-gauge network around Naha, but that system was destroyed during the wartime fighting of 1945 and never rebuilt, leaving the islands without any rail service for decades and reliant on road transport. Planning for a replacement urban transit system began in 1972 — the same year Okinawa reverted from United States administration to Japan — when the first Okinawa development plan raised the need for a track-based system to relieve Naha's chronic road congestion.

Through the 1970s the project moved slowly from study to commitment. A municipal-monorail review council was set up in 1975, and in December 1977 the route was fixed, with planners adopting an alignment running along the Kumoji River; at that stage the line was expected to open in 1987. Okinawa Prefecture and the city of Naha resolved to push the scheme forward in 1979, and on 27 September 1982 the operating company, Okinawa Urban Monorail, Inc., was established to build and run the system.

It was another fourteen years before construction could begin. The track licence was approved by the Transport Council in March 1996, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held on 26 November 1996. On 30 November 1999 the station names and the system's symbol mark were settled and the public nickname "Yui Rail" — from the Okinawan word "yuimaaru," meaning mutual help — was chosen. Test running began on a partial section between Naha Airport and Oroku in December 2001 and was extended to the whole line in November 2002.

The monorail opened to passengers on 10 August 2003, when the 12.9-kilometre first stage between Naha Airport and Shuri entered service. It was the first railway to open in Okinawa Prefecture since the wartime destruction of the old Prefectural Railway, ending nearly six decades without rail transport on the main island. The new line connected the airport with central Naha and the historic Shuri district, climbing across the hilly city on an elevated guideway.

The project was quickly recognised beyond Okinawa. In 2004 the comprehensive strategic urban-development plan built around the monorail received the Ishikawa Award of the City Planning Institute of Japan. Early fears that the line would struggle to cover its costs proved unfounded: ridership grew steadily, and in fiscal 2016 the monorail recorded its first single-year operating profit.

Demand soon justified extending the line inland. After the relevant approvals, a 4.1-kilometre extension from Shuri to Tedako-Uranishi, in Urasoe, opened on 1 October 2019, carrying the monorail beyond the Naha city boundary for the first time and adding several stations to serve growing suburban districts. The extension brought the line to its present length of 17.0 kilometres and 19 stations.

Since opening, the monorail has run with 1000 series cars, every train calling at all stations under one-person operation. Rising patronage led the operator to lengthen trains, and on 10 August 2023 — the line's twentieth anniversary — three-car revenue service began. Today the Okinawa Urban Monorail remains the prefecture's sole rail line, a compact but heavily used artery linking Naha Airport, the prefectural capital and the suburbs of Urasoe.

• 1972Planning for an urban transit system begins, the same year Okinawa reverts from U.S. administration to Japan; the first Okinawa development plan raises the need for a track-based system.
• 1975A municipal-monorail review council is established to study the project.
• 1977December: the route is decided, adopting an alignment along the Kumoji River; the line is expected to open in 1987.
• 198227 September: Okinawa Urban Monorail, Inc., the operating company, is established.
• 1996Construction begins: the track licence is approved by the Transport Council in March and a groundbreaking ceremony is held on 26 November.
• 199930 November: station names and the system's symbol mark are settled and the nickname 'Yui Rail' is chosen.
• 2001December: test running begins on a partial section between Naha Airport and Oroku.
• 2002November: test running is extended to the whole line.
• 200310 August: the 12.9 km first stage between Naha Airport and Shuri opens, the first railway in Okinawa Prefecture since the wartime destruction of the old Prefectural Railway.
• 2004The comprehensive strategic urban-development plan built around the monorail receives the Ishikawa Award of the City Planning Institute of Japan.
• 2016In fiscal 2016 the monorail records its first single-year operating profit.
• 20191 October: the 4.1 km extension from Shuri to Tedako-Uranishi in Urasoe opens, carrying the line beyond the Naha city boundary and bringing it to 17.0 km and 19 stations.
• 202310 August: on the line's twentieth anniversary, three-car revenue service begins.