Welcome! This website is the culmination of an unusual journey to Tuvalu. The participants were the crew of a film project, ’The Silly Run in Tuvalu,’ filmed in January and February 2018 (see it on this website here), and volunteers from Tuvalu Overview, a global environmental NGO active in Tuvalu for over 20 years.

Most of the visit was spent on Funafuti Atoll, Tuvalu’s main island and some parts on Vaitupu, an outer island. The journey ended on Kioa, an island in Fiji that Tuvaluans have been settling since the 60s.

This website features articles and columns (so far in Japanese only) that tell the story of what we experienced and learned during our visit, interviews we recorded, and the film ‘The Silly Run in Tuvalu.’ We really hope you find it an enjoyable resource that you can use to learn a little about Tuvalu.

The Polynesian island nation of Tuvala is a series of specks on the map of the South Pacific, just below the equator. Its people are warm, friendly and laid back, and few in number. With a population numbering only about 10,000, Tuvalu is the world’s second least populous country. It’s also the fourth smallest nation by landmass. Made up of three reef islands and six true atolls, all formed from coral deposits, Tuvalu is on average just two meters above sea level. Sadly, its main claim to fame is that it is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise. Indeed, the impacts of climate change—stronger, more frequent cyclones, shifts in the seasons and increased coastal erosion, to name just a few of the devastating changes–are increasingly visible on the islands.

Away from Funafuti, the capitol, the people of the eight outer islands lead near-subsistent lives in harmony with the surrounding environment. On Funafuti, where a Western capitalistic way of life is gradually taking root, overpopulation has undermined self-sustenance. Today, over 60% of the nation’s population lives on the atoll, and an intense urban drift of people seeking employment and money continues to this day. While capitalism has been positive for Tuvalu in many ways, it has also brought waste, environmental degradation and a displacement of traditional values and ways of life.

All things considered, Tuvalu is a fascinating place, where pristine nature, warm and welcoming people, and deep–and even disturbing–social issues coexist in a fascinating state of balanced chaos.

This website changes in real-time according to the sea level at Tuvalu. At high tide, over half of the website is submerged. If you want to lower the sea level to view the full website, you have to press the “Tuvalu Share Button,” which allows you to share this website on your social media page. Please do that to help raise awareness about the situation in Tuvalu. If you want to see how the website looks at maximum sea level, just press the “King Tide Button” at the bottom of the page at any time.