First look
Soneva is heading to Japan for the first time, and it has picked an unusual address: Gushikawa, an uninhabited island in Okinawa Prefecture sitting between Iheya and Izena. The working-name project is announced and under development, with the opening reported for 2029 (earlier reporting floated 2027, so we will take the timeline as a moving target until the brand commits). The plan on paper runs to roughly 129 keys, split between about 106 low-rise land rooms and around 23 overwater villas, for something like 500 guests at capacity.
What we will be watching for is whether Soneva carries its barefoot, slow-luxury template into a Japanese setting rather than a Maldivian one, and how the overwater villas read in Okinawa’s waters versus the Indian Ocean originals. There is no dedicated official page yet, so the room split and timing could still shift. Reporting comes from Nikkei Asia, the Skift Daily Lodging Report and regional Okinawa outlets; once Soneva publishes a property page we will firm up the details.
