After 1987, there was no survey of Iceland in Japan. An MP from the ruling party demanded this in Parliament. After this the survey was done here. Its report will be released by next week.
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For the first time after 1987, the Japanese government conducted a survey of territorial waters. In this, the number of official islands is expected to increase from 6,852 to 14,125. Japan is a mountainous nation with a land area of about 146,000 square miles, bordered by the Pacific Ocean, the Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan and East China Sea is surrounded by. Its full report will be presented next week. This is not happening for the first time that a new island has been found. Although getting such a number of new islands is shocking in itself.
The new survey by Japan’s Geospatial Information Authority is not expected to increase the country’s area, but will give officials a more accurate picture of its terrain. The latest survey was done after a demand by a member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. A report in Kyodo News reported that in December 2021, Parliament was told that the accurate understanding of the number of islands is an important administrative matter that is related to the national interest.
While Japan is mostly just listing the islands that have always been there but gone unnoticed. The creation of new islands in the country’s territory is not unprecedented. According to the Japan Times, in August 2021, Japan’s Coast Guard discovered a new C-shaped island with a diameter of about .6 miles after a submarine volcano erupted near Iwo Jima. Government departments will release its report within the next few weeks.
The new information was not likely to change the size of Japan’s territory or territorial waters, according to the Kyodo news agency. Some of Japan’s 47 prefectures include a large number of islands. According to the new survey, the northern prefecture of Hokkaido – one of the four main islands along with Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu – has 1,473, while Nagasaki in the southwest has 1,479.
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