Language of Okinawa
There remain a lot of Ryukyuan languages which are more-or-less incomprehensible to Japanese speakers.
These languages are in decline as the Mainland Japanese is being used by the younger generation.
Many linguists, at the very least those outside Japan, consider Ryukyuan languages as different languages from Japanese, while they are commonly perceived as "dialects" by mainland Japanese and Okinawans themselves.
Standard Japanese is nearly always used in formal circustances. In informal circustances, de facto everyday language among Okinawans under age 60 is Okinawa-accented mainland Japanese called ウチナーヤマトグチ (Uchinaa Yamatoguchi "Okinawan Japanese"), which is usually misunderstood as Okinawan language proper, ウチナーグチ (Uchinaaguchi "Okinawan language").
Uchinaaguchi is still used in traditional cultural activities, such as folk music, or folk dance. There is a radio news program in the language as well.
Culture of Okinawa
Okinawan culture bears traces of its several trading partners. One can find Chinese, Thai and Austronesian influences in the island's customs. Perhaps Okinawa's most well known cultural export is karate, most likely a product of the close ties with and influence of China on Okinawan culture. Karate is thought to be a synthesis of Chinese kung fu with traditional Okinawan martial arts. A ban on weapons in Okinawa for two long periods after the invasion and forced annexation by Japan during the Meiji Restoration period also very likely addd to its development.
Another traditional Okinawan product that owes its existence to Okinawa's trading history is awamori―an Okinawan distilled spirit made from indica rice imported from Thailand.
Other prominent examples of Okinawan culture include the sanshin―a three-stringed Okinawan instrument, closely related to the Chinese sanxian, and ancestor of the Japanese shamisen, somewhat just like a banjo. Its body is usually bound with snakeskin (from pythons, imported from elsewhere in Asia, rather than from Okinawa's venomous Trimeresurus flavoviridis, which are too small for this purpose). Okinawan culture also features the eisa dance, a traditional drumming dance. A traditional craft, the fabric named bingata, is made in workshops on the main island and elsewhere.
The Okinawan diet consist of low-fat, low-salt foods, such as fish, tofu, and seaweed. Okinawans are known for their longevity. Individuals live longer on this Japanese island than anywhere on earth. Five times as many Okinawans live to be 100 as in the rest of Japan, and the Japanese are the longest-lived nationality on earth. There are 34.7 centenarians for every 100,000 inhabitants, being the highest ratio on earth. The possible explanations to this fact is the diet, low-stress lifestyle, caring community, activity, and spirituality of the inhabitants of the island.
In recent years, Okinawan literature has been appreciated outside of the Ryūkyū archipelago. Two Okinawan writers have received the Akutagawa Prize: Matayoshi Eiki in 1995 for The Pig's Retribution (豚の報い, Buta no mukui?) and Medoruma Shun in 1997 for A Drop of Water (Suiteki). The prize was also won by Okinawans in 1967 by Tatsuhiro Oshiro for Cocktail Party (Kakuteru Pāti) and in 1971 by Mineo Higashi for Okinawan Boy (Okinawa no Shōnen).