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LUCKY FIND

Japan ‘Finds’ 7,000 Islands It Didn’t Even Know It Had

A survey using the latest mapping technology more than doubles the number of known islands in Japanese waters.

Yonaha Maehama Beach on Miyako Island, Okinawa prefecture, Japan, April 22, 2022.

Issei Kato/Reuters

By Philippe Naughton

Japanese geography textbooks are going to need a major update: The latest mapping survey has identified more than 7,000 previously unknown islands in the country’s waters. The finding more than doubles the number of Japanese islands, to 14,125, from the 6,852 found in the last survey, by the Japanese coast guard, in 1987. Since that last survey, Gizmodo explained, new geospatial technology has allowed mappers to distinguish small clusters of islands that were previously recorded as single masses. Repeated earthquakes over the past 35 years have also helped create new islands.

Read it at Gizmodo

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