About

About Off Base Okinawa

We're a small team based in central Okinawa. We live here, read Japanese, and know how the local side of things works — city offices, trash rules, landlords, typhoon season.

We started this site because the same questions keep coming up from military families who move off base, and the answers are usually buried in Japanese-only documents.

How we make money

We also run Tida Home Cleaning, a weekly house cleaning service for off-base homes. That's how this site pays for itself. Our guides are written to be useful whether or not you ever book a cleaning, and when we mention our own service, we say so.

How we check facts

We base our guides on official sources — city and prefectural websites, the Japan Meteorological Agency, and base publications — and link to them. Rules change, so each guide shows when it was last updated. If you spot something out of date, please tell us.

Not an official resource

Off Base Okinawa is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Forces Japan, or any installation.