One of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, Japan has over the years, welcomed millions of visitors from all over the world.
They offer a number of tourist attractions, including islands. Surprisingly, the country in the Pacific had no idea that it was surrounded by numerous islands.
Japan has looked back at its islands and found that it has 7,000 more than it thought.
The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) recently conducted digital mapping and discovered 14,125 islands in Japanese territory—more than double the 6,852 islands that have been officially used since a 1987 Coast Guard report.
However, the GSI has emphasized that the new figure does not alter the total area of land in Japan’s possession; rather, it reflects improvements in surveying technology and the accuracy of the maps used in the count.
It stated that it had used the same size criterion as the previous survey 35 years ago, despite the lack of international consensus on how to count islands.
That required counting every naturally occurring area of land with a circumference of at least 330 feet (100 meters).
The new figure does not include any land that has been artificially reclaimed. Numerous territorial disputes have centered on the islands that surround Japan.
The dispute between Japan and Russia over the southern Kuril islands, which Moscow refers to as the “Northern Territories,” dates back to the end of World War II, when Soviet forces took them from Japan.
Additionally, Japan asserts that it has a historical claim to the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which it currently manages and is responsible for administering. However, China has repeatedly challenged that claim.
Meanwhile, a dispute between Japan and South Korea over the sovereignty of a group of islands known as Dokdo by Seoul and Takeshima by Tokyo in the Sea of Japan, which Korea refers to as the East Sea, has been going on for more than 70 years.
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