Japan has just lately performed a survey to rely its islands, revealing that it has greater than 7,000, double the quantity beforehand believed. The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) used digital mapping and the identical dimension standards because the 1987 Coast Guard report back to make the invention. The survey didn’t embrace any land that has been artificially reclaimed.
The island rely has implications for 2 ongoing disputes. First, Japan claims the Southern Kuril Islands, at the moment managed by Russia, as Northern Territories. On the opposite facet, Japan has historical claims to the Senkaku Islands, at the moment appeared over by China. These disputes have led to a number of invasions of Japanese airspace and Chinese and Russian spy jets scrambling.
Japan and South Korea are additionally in a 70-year-old dispute over the sovereignty of a group of islets referred to as Dokdo in Seoul and Takeshima close to Tokyo. Located within the Sea of Japan, which Korea refers to because the East Sea, the islets are a supply of pressure between the 2 international locations.