Japanese cartographers counted their islands and found that there were 7,000 more than previously thought.
Photos from open sources
Digital mapping by the Japan Geospatial Information Authority (GSI) recently revealed that there are 14,125 islands in Japan, more than double the figure of 6,852 officially used since the 1987 Japan Coast Guard report.
However, GSI stressed this week that the new figure reflects advances in surveying technology and the detail of the maps used to calculate it – it hasn’t changed the total land area held by Japan.
Japan said that although there is no international agreement on how to count islands, it used the same size criterion as in a previous study 35 years ago. This entailed counting all natural landmasses with a circumference of at least 100 meters.
The new number does not include artificially reclaimed land.
