Shinmoedake

Shinmoedake, also written Shinmoe-dake and known in Japanese as 新燃岳, is an active stratovolcano in the Kirishima volcanic group on the island of Kyushu, Japan. The mountain stands on the boundary between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures and reaches an elevation of 1,421 metres. It lies within Kirishima-Kinkowan National Park, whose northern section contains more than twenty volcanic peaks together with crater lakes, fumaroles, hot springs and highland plateaus. Shinmoedake has a broad summit crater approximately 700 metres across and has recorded repeated explosive eruptions since the seventeenth century. Before 2011, the crater contained a distinctive blue-green lake, but a major eruption that year produced a lava dome approximately 600 metres wide and removed the lake. Further eruptive periods followed in 2017–2018 and 2025, leaving the summit considerably different from its appearance during the 1960s.

Shinmoedake has appeared in You Only Live Twice (1967). Its crater and surrounding volcanic landscape represent the apparently extinct volcano concealing the secret rocket base operated by Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE. The real mountain supplies the exterior and aerial views, while the vast interior complex, retractable crater roof, launch area and control rooms were constructed at Pinewood Studios in England.

In You Only Live Twice (1967), Shinmoedake appears during James Bond’s search for the hidden base responsible for capturing American and Soviet spacecraft. Aerial footage of the crater is introduced while Bond surveys the volcanic region in the armed autogyro Little Nellie, establishing the mountain beneath which SPECTRE has built its headquarters. Bond and Kissy Suzuki later investigate the area and discover that the apparently natural crater conceals an artificial entrance. What appears to be a crater lake opens as a retractable roof, allowing helicopters and SPECTRE spacecraft to enter the complex below. The real Shinmoedake was used only for the exterior identity of the volcano. Production designer Ken Adam created the enormous interior at Pinewood Studios, complete with a working monorail, command centre, helipad, rocket-launching equipment and an opening lake roof. The scenes in which Bond infiltrates the base, Tiger Tanaka’s ninjas descend into the crater and the complex is destroyed were filmed on this studio set, with the footage edited together to make it appear as though the entire installation exists inside Shinmoedake.

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