The Ogasawara Islands are located about 1,000 km away from Tokyo to the south. They consist of islands that are surrounded by vertical cliffs and ocean whose beautiful color is referred to as "Bonin Blue".
Since the islands have never bordered a continent in their history, the wildlife species found in Ogasawara are the descendents of animals and plants that arrived there by chance. Some were carried by birds or the wind, while others were washed up by ocean currents or clung to driftwood. Those species have survived by adapting themselves to the environment of the islands. They then became established on the islands and evolved in their own unique ways in a long period of time within an environment far separated from the mainland. As a result, this led to the occurrence of many endemic species which are not to be seen anywhere else, such as Melastoma tetramerum and Hemicordulia ogasawarensis. Roughly 40% of the vascular plants, about 25% of the insects, and more than 90% of the land snails (roughly 100 species) are endemic to Ogasawara.