Country guide
Sea glass beaches in Japan
9 sea glass spots in Japan, pinned by 2 collectors. Each one has photos and notes from someone who has been.
All 9 spots in JapanOpen the interactive mapWhat colours turn up in Japan
The colours members report most often across these 9 spots.
White
2 beaches
Soft blue
2 beaches
Amber
2 beaches
Green
1 beach
Every sea glass beach mapped in Japan
Moriya Beach, Katsuura
One of the cleanest beaches on the Pacific side of Chiba. The white sand is crushed shell, and the little island of Watashima sits 170 m offshore. The glass here is seasonal and it is not on the open sand: collectors report bagfuls in summer and literally none in autumn and winter, so check recent reports before you drive down. Blue and green dominate, white comes clear and frosted, brown is scarce. It sits inside the Minami-Bōsō quasi-national park: glass and pottery are yours, but the shellfish belong to the fishing cooperative. Taking abalone or turban shells here is poaching, with a seven-figure fine.
Common coloursA good amount
Kunjita Beach (Sea Glass Beach), Nago
Nago City's own planning documents name this beach クンジタ浜（通称シーグラスビーチ）, Kunjita Beach, commonly known as Sea Glass Beach. It is a 500 m strand on the Pacific side of Toyohara, backed by a five-metre sea cliff, with no shop, no toilet, and a gravel lot for about ten cars at the end of an unpaved farm lane. The land belongs to the Toyohara community, which holds its dragon-boat festival here; anyone may walk the beach, so there is only one rule worth stating: a handful, not a haul, and carry your rubbish out. Wear reef shoes, because the flats are coral rubble.
Loads of glass
Glass Sand Beach, Omura Bay
Do not collect here. This is not sea glass: it is crushed recycled bottle glass, machine-tumbled and laid down by Nagasaki Prefecture in June 2016 to rebuild a clam bed and clean up Ōmura Bay. Taking it home is prohibited. It is doing a job. It is still worth the stop: a strand of blue, green and brown glass grains that glitters in the sun beside Nagasaki airport, with an information board explaining the scheme. Wear shoes (the prefecture warns a sharp grain slips through now and then), and don't swim.
Protected beach
Mitohama Beach, Miura
A working-village beach at the tip of the Miura peninsula, open to the Kuroshio, which is why so much washes up. Mitohama's speciality is size: the glass comes in pieces big enough to drill and set, where Chōjagasaki up the coast gives you gravel. The rocky corner under Kurosaki-no-hana at the north end is where the shingle, and the shells, collect. There is no working car park (the old one closed in 2020), so walk out from Misakiguchi station, about 25 minutes.
A good amount
Tōmyōdō Coast, Yokosuka
Kantō's worst-kept secret. The main beach under the Tōmyōdō lighthouse is picked over and can leave you with nothing but pottery. The glass is in the small cove one rock scramble further south, barely bigger than a room, and it fills with bigger pieces than the main strand. Come at low tide, because the cove all but vanishes at high water, and wear shoes: red jellyfish wash up here. Buses run from Kurihama; there is paid parking by the lighthouse.
Loads of glass
Chōjagasaki Beach, Hayama
The beach either side of the Chōjagasaki headland is the one Kantō collectors name first. Walk away from the stairs and keep going: the sand near the car park is bare, but where the shingle piles up, at the ends of the strand and beside the breakwater, the glass starts and doesn't stop. Pieces are small (bring a jar, not a bucket), mostly white with blue and brown. Winter is the season; by late summer the beach has been walked all over.
Common coloursLoads of glass
Katsuura Central Beach
Ten minutes' walk from Katsuura station, so you can do it on a day trip with no car. Work the strip between the Hotel Mikazuki frontage and the torii. That is where the glass and the pottery shards concentrate. Mixed sizes, plenty of ceramic, and at least one collector has come away with deep-blue pieces. The Katsuura coast is fishing-cooperative water: the glass is yours, the shellfish are not.
A good amount
Kanaya Beach, Futtsu
A small beach in the shadow of Nokogiriyama, five minutes on foot from Hamakanaya station and the Tokyo Bay ferry, which is exactly why it holds glass: almost nobody walks it. Two collectors, six years apart, describe the same thing: pieces scattered right across the sand, from fingernail-sized up to pendant-sized, well frosted. It is a short beach; work it slowly rather than covering ground.
A good amount
Toguchi Beach, Yomitan
A quiet Okinawan beach on the East China Sea where post-war glass still tumbles ashore. Greens and ambers mostly, with soft seafoam pieces between the coral rubble. Early morning at low tide is best. Photo by Pete Birkinshaw.
A good amountSea glass beaches in other countries
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