Japan discovers 7,000 new unknown islands
The Geospatial Information Authority determines that Japan has 14,125 islands, twice as many as previously reported.
Volcanic activity along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” gave rise to a tiny island in late November 2013. Located in the Ogasawara Islands, Japan. Photo: NASA Earth Observatory satellite image by Robert Simmon.
Japan has 7,000 more islands than previously thought. The country’s Geospatial Information Authority (GSI) has recently determined that there are 14,125 islands throughout Japan, more than double the 6,852 that were officially registered since 1987.
The GSI claims that new surveying technologies and digital mapping have made it possible to accurately count the number of islands that make up Japan’s territory.
This organization has counted all the natural islands and islets that exist in the archipelago and that have a perimeter of at least 100 meters in length. It does not include any artificially created islands.
This is the same criterion used in the last official count, which dates back to 1987 and was carried out by the Coast Guard still using paper maps.
Japan just found 7,000 islands it didn’t know it had https://t.co/iLclPf7JSo
— 9DASHLINE (@9DashLine) March 4, 2023
Despite the doubling of the new island figure, the GSI has noted that the new information is unlikely to change Japan’s official land area or territorial waters, according to the Kyodo news agency.
Following the new island registry, Nagasaki Prefecture, in the southwest of the country, appears with a total of 1,479 islands, while the northern prefecture of Hokkaido has 1,473.
Despite having more than 14,000 islands, Japan maintains several open territorial disputes with neighboring countries over the sovereignty of other islands. The most important is the one with Russia since World War II over control of the Kuril Islands, which Tokyo calls its Northern Territories. It also has territorial disputes with China and South Korea.
-Thailand News (TN)
