Digital mapping by Japan’s Geospatial Information Agency (GSI) recently revealed that there are 14,125 islands in Japan, double the number of 6,852 in official use according to a 1987 Japan Coast Guard report.

However, the GSI stressed last week that the new figure reflected advances in surveying technology and did not change Japan’s total land area.

It said that although there is no international agreement on how to count the islands, the same size criterion was used as the previous survey 35 years ago.