Japan could add more than 7 000 islands to its list of land masses, where a recent survey found that it has more than double the number of islands initially accounted for.
Beautiful bird’s-eye view of a seascape of the Kujkushima islands that lie off sasebo famous for its saw-toothed coast with multiple islets part of Saikai National Park in Kyushu in Japan. Picture: Getty Images
Japan’s government harnessed modern digital mapping digital technology to achieve a precise overview of its scattered land masses.
With the help of aerial photos and existing maps and aligning it with other data, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) identified 7 273 new islands.
The archipelago was believed to have 6 852 islands based on a 1987 report by the Japanese post guard.
‘An accurate understanding of the number of islands is an important administrative matter related to the national interest,’ a lawmaker from the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party said, Kyodo News reports.
‘The “definition of islands” is based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, but there is no international agreement regarding the “method of counting islands,”‘ GSI said in a statement.
‘Therefore, when counting islands, in addition to islands based on laws and regulations, we counted land with a circumference of 0.1 km or more that was judged to have been naturally formed among the land areas drawn on the map.’
The new survey has now identified 14 125 islands within Japan’s territory.
However, this doesn’t mean Japan’s territory size has changed. The GSI added that the new findings ‘will not affect Japan’s territory and territorial waters.’
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