This year, Japan has recounted its islands. Shockingly, 7,000 more islands than before were discovered.
Thanks to digital mapping by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI), 7,000 new islands were discovered in Japanese territory.
Recent mapping found that there are 14,125 Japanese islands. This is more than double the figure of 6,852 which is the official report by Japan’s Coast Guard, last reported in 1987.
Japan has just discovered 7,000 new islands – an incredible discovery
In an age of technological advances, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and precise satellites, it can often feel like there is not much left to discover.
Today, sailors don’t often come across brand-new islands, and pilots no longer discover unidentified countries on a regular basis.
However, Japan’s recent discovery shows that there is indeed much more to discover than we might have thought.
Recent findings have revealed that Japan’s previous figures, which show 6,852 islands in Japanese territory, are not correct. There are actually over double this number – 14,125 Japanese islands.
How did this happen? – 35-year-old data
So, how exactly do you miss over 7,000 islands? Well, the last data was collected by the Japan Coast Guard in 1987.
Back then, they decided to leave out any islands that were smaller than a circumference of 100 metres (328 ft).
Furthermore, the technology used wasn’t the best in distinguishing between large stand-alone islands and smaller groups of islands. In turn, this led to thousands of islands not being properly or formerly recorded.
Further again, since the last recording, more islands have appeared as a result of volcanic activity in Japan. So, the revised map now uses the UN Convention on the Law of Sea’s definition of what constitutes an island.
This outlines that an island is “a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide”.
As a result, large sandbanks that were previously dismissed are now considered islands, too. With this discovery, it remains unseen whether people will be able to visit these new islands.
Territory disputes – disputes with China, South Korea, and more
The islands that surround Japan have been at the core of several territorial disputes for years. For starters, Japan claims ownership over the Russian-held southern Kuril Islands. This is a dispute that dates back to the end of World War II when Soviet soldiers seized the islands.
The news of these new islands comes as tension between China and Japan continues to rise over the sovereignty of a group of uninhabited Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Furthermore, Japan and South Korea have been locked in a 70-year-old dispute over the sovereignty over a group of islets in the Sea of Japan. These islets are called Dokdo by Seoul and Takeshima by Tokyo.
The GSI stressed that while this new figure reflects advances in surveying technology and the extraordinary detail of the mapping used for the count, it doesn’t change the overall area of Japanese land possession.
