Japan Recounts Its Islands, Discovers 7,000 More

Yonaguni island in Yonaguni, Japan on April 13, 2022. Carl Court/Getty Images

The number of islands in Japan is expected to increase by 7,273 after a new government recount.

Geographers have said current official statistics of 6,852 islands are off the mark.

With the recent geographical study of the archipelago, the figure is expected to rise to 14,125 islands, which is more than double the current figure, a source familiar with the matter told Kyodo News.

The previous estimate dates back to a 1987 study conducted by the Japanese Coast Guard and only included islands with a circumference of at least 100 meters, or 328 feet.

The 1987 count relied on human beings poring over paper maps, whereby groups of small islands were often misidentified as one island.

Sandbanks were also excluded, which the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea recognizes as islands, The Telegraph reported.

Additionally, volcanic activity has led to the formation of more islands in the 35 years since the last study.

The new count used the same criterion as before but with digital mapping technology to automatically count the islands, and then cross-referenced the information with past aerial photos and other data. Islands in lakes or rivers were excluded from the total.

The number of islands is not yet official as the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) is making final adjustments. The GSI is expected to release a report on its updated map of the nation in March, Kyodo News reported.

The modified number of islands does not mean that Japan is expanding its territory, as the new islets were all counted close to previously recorded Japanese islands—thus leaving the nation’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone unaffected.

The new study was conducted following a December 2021 parliamentary session when a member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party pointed out that the existing data was likely obsolete, and that the true figure could be significantly higher.

“An accurate understanding of the number of islands is an important administrative matter that is related to the national interest,” the legislator said, according to Kyodo News.

Japan lies along the western edge of the Ring of Fire and is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan, and the East China Sea.

The island nation has been in dispute with China over the sovereignty of a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea—known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu Islands in China.

While the islands are administered by Japan, Beijing has claimed the islands as part of China’s territory.