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VIVA – Japan has recalculated its islands and found that it has 7,000 more islands than previously thought. Digital mapping by the Japan Geospatial Information Authority (GSI) recently found there are 14,125 islands in Japan's territory, more than double the 6852 figure that has been in official use since a 1987 report by the Japan Coast Guard.
The GSI emphasized that the new figure reflects advances in survey technology and the details of the maps used for calculation, not changes to the overall land area owned by Japan.
It said that while there is no international agreement on how to count islands, the size criteria used are the same as the previous survey 35 years ago.
When the Japan Coast Guard counted the islands 35 years ago, its technology could not distinguish between small island clusters and larger individual islands, meaning thousands of islands were counted as one.
Sebuah gambar kartu pos menunjukkan pulau tak berpenghuni di Laut Tiongkok Timur yang disengketakan Jepang dan China.
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In the years that followed, volcanic eruptions also contributed to the formation of new islands, which, combined, almost doubled the island land mass that Japan was previously thought to have.
A Japanese lawmaker once reportedly argued that it was time for a recalculation during the 2021 parliamentary session, but it was only realized recently, as reported from the Timeout site.
The lawmaker said, "An accurate understanding of the number of islands is an important administrative issue related to national interests," Kyodo News reported.
The new number does not include artificially reclaimed land. Moreover, the islands surrounding Japan have been at the center of several territorial disputes.
Japan claims the Russian-held southern Kuril archipelago, which Tokyo calls the Northern Territories, a dispute that dates back to the end of World War II when Soviet forces seized the islands from Japan.
Japan also says it has a historic claim to the uninhabited Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which it currently administers, but China has repeatedly challenged the claim.
Meanwhile, Japan and South Korea remain "locked" in a more than the 70-year dispute over the sovereignty of a group of islands known as Dokdo by Seoul and Takeshima by Tokyo in the Sea of Japan, which the Koreans refer to as the East Sea.
