CNN Indonesia
Thursday, 02 Mar 2023 21:06 WIB
Jakarta, CNNIndonesia —
Japan discovered seven thousand new islands and made a commotion in Sakura Country.
The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) said the new findings bring the number of islands in the country to 14,125.
This number has doubled from the official calculation in 1987, which was only 6,852 islands, he was quoted as saying CNNThursday (2/3).
GSI stressed the new findings reflected advances in surveying technology and the details of the maps used to calculate.
However, the agency said the calculation did not change the total land area owned by Japan.
In an official statement, the GSI also stated that there was no international agreement on how to count islands. Thus, Japan uses the same criteria in calculating islands as 35 years ago.
Tokyo authorities count all areas of natural land that are at least 100 meters (330 ft) across. They don’t count the artificial islands that were reclaimed.
Japan does have many islands. However, some of the islands are in dispute between the country and other parties.
The Kuril Islands, for example, became a dispute between Japan and the Soviet Union (currently Russia) after World War II ended.
Japan also claims the Senkaku Islands in the South China Sea, but China rejects that claim.
China does claim most of the territory in SCS waters even though the International Court of Arbitrators rejected their claim in 2016.
On the other hand, Japan and South Korea have also been involved in more disputes over the sovereignty of the island group for 70 years.
South Korea calls the island group Dokdo and Japan calls it Takeshima in the Sea of Japan or East Sea.
(one/bac)
