GSI survey discovers 7,000 islands that Japan didn't know it had

The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI), in a recently conducted digital mapping, has discovered 7,000 more islands than what Japan thought it had previously, according to a report on CNN. And GSI, a body that conducts national surveying and mapping activities, owes it all to the latest surveying technology!

Initially, it was thought that there were 6,852 islands within the Japanese territory and now it was found to be 14,125, which is double the current official number that is based on a report by Japan’s Coast Guard in 1987.

GSI has clarified that the new figure does not mean a change in the overall area of land possessed by Japan and neither does it include any land reclaimed artificially.

GSI is said to have used the same criterion followed hitherto in counting islands though there exists no international agreement on the method of counting islands. The last survey was conducted some 35 years back and involved counting all naturally occurring land areas with a minimum circumference of 100 metres (330 feet).

The surveys performed by GSI provide the longitude and latitude of a land and its elevation from the mean sea level. Additionally, GPS-based control stations are also utilised.

The five main islands of Japan are Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Okinawa and the remaining 14,120 islands come under the category of ‘remote islands’.

Japan has laid claims over several other islands apart from this. It claims to own the Russian-held southern Kuril islands, which are also referred to as ‘Northern Territories’ by Tokyo. The dispute over the island dates to the end of World War II, when Soviet troops seized them from Japan. The country is also involved in disputes with China and South Korea over Senkaku Islands and a group of islets named Dokdo respectively.