Some links are affiliate links, read our disclosure ↗ Directory · 2026-08-14 · Field journal
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Directory · Okinawa

Okinawa Dive Operators: What We Could Verify (2026)

Every dive and snorkel operator on Okinawa that appears in the Green Fins register, with what an independent source confirms and what nobody publishes. Not a ranking, not a recommendation, and no operator paid to be listed.

15 entries in the register on 2026-08-14 · 14 hold Certified membership, assessed in person · 0 publish which languages their instructors teach in.

How to read this list: the labels, and why some fields are blank

Green Fins comes from the register, and the level carries the assessment with it: a Certified member was assessed in person, a Digital member evaluated itself. Agency, instructor languages and licence are what the operator states. Click a name for the source and the date behind each field.

Open an operator and each field shows what it says, then where that came from and the date we read it. checked means a register or authority states it. claimed means the operator states it, and the source says where we read it: their own site, their agency profile, or a reply to our email. Evidence of what they claim, not that it is true. not checked means we could not check it, and we print the gap rather than drop the field.

Three things are true of every operator here, so they are said once instead of 15 times. An agency named on an operator's own site is a claim, not a membership anyone let us look up. A licence number is useful because you can take it to the authority yourself, which is the only check that counts. Instructor languages are what the operation states, and teams change with the season.

Where a reason differs for one operator, it is inside that operator's row.

  • Instructor languages. No agency profile we could reach, and no register publishes instructor languages. A website language switcher is a fact about the website, not about the staff.
  • Insurance. No public register of operator insurance exists for Japan.
  • Licence. No tourism business licence number published on the operator's own site, and the Japan register cannot be queried by operator name from here.
  • Staff on the roster. No staff breakdown published for this operation.
  • Training agency. Not stated in a form we could read. Several of these sites render their content with JavaScript we do not execute, so this is absence of a reading, not absence of an affiliation.

What this directory refuses to tell you

Insurance. No public register of operator liability cover exists for Japan, so any directory claiming to have checked it is quoting the operator back to you. Guide ratios and in-water practice. The Green Fins assessment covers environmental impact, not supervision. Instructor languages, where they are blank. A blank means no answer yet, not that nobody there speaks your language. It is the most commonly invented field in this industry, and a website language switcher is not evidence for it: that tells you a translator was hired once, not who is on the boat this season.

The list can only contain operators who joined Green Fins. A shop that never applied is absent, and absence here says nothing about it. Every dive or snorkel operator in Okinawa carried in the Green Fins member register on 14 August 2026. Operators outside that register are not listed, which is a limit of the source and not a judgement about them. The register files all fifteen under Onna-son, one village on the west coast, rather than across the island.

Corrections and removals. If you operate one of these businesses and a field is wrong, write to us with the document and we will correct it and date the correction. We will not remove a factual register entry on request, and we do not accept payment for a listing, an ordering or a badge. If that ever changes it will be declared here and on the disclosure page before the first paid listing appears.
What this page is, and is not. This is independent research, written by the operator of this site and not reviewed by a lawyer. It is not a substitute for training, and listing an operator is not a safety endorsement: we have not dived with these businesses, inspected their equipment or watched their briefings. Diving carries risk that no register removes. Where this page mentions cover it is not insurance advice: we state only that no public register exists, which is a fact about registers, not about any operator’s policy. Every field carries the date it was checked; verify anything that matters with the operator and the authority before you rely on it.

Sources

  1. Green Fins member register (Reef-World Foundation with the UN Environment Programme). Queried through its store locator at 26.5/127.86, radius 25 km, filtered to Okinawa. greenfins.net, checked 2026-08-14.
  2. Green Fins membership definitions. A Certified Member "received an in-person assessment from a Green Fins assessor within the last 12 months" and is scored out of 330 where lower is better: Gold to 50, Silver to 150, Bronze to 200. A Digital Member self-evaluates, and "Digital Members do not have to pass a minimum requirement", on a separate scale to 10 running the other way, so the two scores cannot be compared. Restricted is not an administrative state: "Operations that score 201 or higher are classed as Restricted Members and will need to be reassessed to receive membership benefits", and a restricted member "has either not yet reached the minimum threshold assessment score, has not managed to effectively reduce their assessment score within the last two years or has been involved in an activity that is seen as seriously detrimental to the marine environment". The register does not say which of the three applies to any one operation, and neither do we. Certified, Digital, checked 2026-08-12.
  3. PADI dive shop profiles at apps.padi.com for instructor languages and staff counts, read where the operation publishes a store number we could find and has filled those fields in. Most have done neither, which is why that column is thin rather than absent.
  4. Operator websites, read on 2026-08-14 for the self-declared fields only. Of the 15 addresses the register carries, 0 are dead, 0 are social media pages that refuse automated checks, and 1 refused us for other reasons. Each is marked on its own card rather than quietly dropped or called dead.
  5. how to get certified while travelling for choosing a course.
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