Naha is the capital city of Okinawa, Japan. The city was named for a mushroom-shaped stone in the city, and, under the Ryukyu Kingdom, Naha was a major port, while Shuri was home to Shuri Castle, the royal capital; in time, Naha would come to incorporate Shuri. In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry's American naval expedition stopped in Naha on its way to the Japanese mainland. In 1872, Naha became the capital of Japan's new "Ryukyu Domain", which was annexed as a prefecture in 1879. In 1899, Naha became an open port for trading with the United States and British Empire. The entire city center of Naha was destroyed in 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa at the end of World War II, and the city was soon rebuilt. In 2013, Naha was designated a "core city" of Japan. Naha became home to the Kyokuryu-kai and the Okinawa Kyokuryu-kai yakuza groups, the latter of which was larger and more powerful. In 2019, Naha had a population of 317,405 people.
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