Japan counts its islands – and finds another 7000 Putin’s hate preacher now targets Switzerland – that’s behind it

Japan consists of the four main islands of Hokkaidô, Honshû, Shikoku and Kyûshû – as well as 6,848 other islands. At least that’s what the Japanese thought until now.

A new digital mapping by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) recently revealed that there are 14,125 islands in Japanese territory. That’s more than double the 6,852 officially listed on Pacific Empire records since a 1987 report by the Japan Coast Guard.

7,000 new islands do not affect the total area

However, the GSI cartographers emphasized that the new figure was created through the use of state-of-the-art surveying technology and the level of detail of the maps used. In principle, it does not change the total area of ​​land belonging to Japan.

This is also because many of these islands are small. Only those with a diameter of at least 100 meters are included in the new list. According to the information, artificially created islands were not included in the census.

Wars and quarrels: Japan would like to have these islands

Some of the islands surrounding Japan were and still are the focus of territorial disputes. For example, Japan claims the Russian-occupied southern Kuril Islands. This archipelago north of Japan alone has more than 30 islands of volcanic origin. Tokyo calls them the “Northern Territories”. The dispute with Russia dates back to the end of World War II, when Soviet troops conquered the islands and erased them from Japan.

Japan also claims to have a historical claim to the uninhabited Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which it currently controls, but China has repeatedly denied that claim. And there is also a clash with South Korea: the two countries have been feuding for more than 70 years over the sovereignty of an archipelago in the Sea of ​​Japan called Seoul Dokdo and Tokyo Takeshima.

(t-online/cpf)