Four specimens (390.5–576.0 mm standard length; SL) of Etelis boweni Andrews, Fernandez-Silva, Randall and Ho, 2021 (Perciformes: Lutjanidae), collected from the Osumi Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, were similar to Etelis carbunculus Cuvier, 1828 in sharing the following characters: dorsal fin with a deep notch and lacking scales; maxilla covered with scales; caudal-fin lower lobe whitish; and length of caudal-fin upper lobe greater than 3.3 in SL. However, the specimens differed from E. carbunculus in having the opercular spine posterior end rounded (pointed in the latter), 14 scale rows below the lateral line (vs. 12), and tip of the caudal-fin upper lobe black in both fresh and preserved specimens (vs. reddish in fresh specimens, yellowish in preserved specimens). Furthermore, a sequence analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene of the four Osumi Islands’ specimens showed a divergence of only 0.0–0.5% from the holotype of E. boweni, the five specimens comprising a clade separated by 7.5–8.8% sequence divergence from E. carbunculus. Although E. boweni is widely distributed in the IndoWest Pacific (from the Red Sea and Seychelles to Samoa), the Osumi Islands’ specimens (for which the standard Japanese name “Oo-akamutsu” is newly proposed) represent the first specimen-based records of Etelis boweni from Japanese waters as well as from the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Additionally, the apparently sympatric occurrence of E. boweni and E. carbunculus was evidenced by the collection together of the two species (KAUM–I. 160343, 390.5 mm SL and KAUM–I. 160342, 407.9 mm SL, respectively).