Original title: Japan suddenly claimed that there were more than 7,000 small islands, which implied calculations of maritime territory
[环球时报驻日本特约记者 蒋丰 环球时报记者 樊巍]Last summer, former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda asked the audience in a speech at the Japanese House of Representatives: “How many islands does Japan have?” No one answered for a while, so the “Global Times” special correspondent in Japan whispered: “There are 6,000 islands. Many.” Yoshihiko Noda was very excited when he heard that: “Yes, yes, we have more than 6,000 islands in Japan, and I only figured it out when I was prime minister.” It turned out to be 14125! This number is more than double the 6,852 islands announced by the Japan Coast Guard in 1987.
The meaning of an island is water rights
“Japan just discovered 7,000 islands,” CNN reported on March 2. Japan re-counted its own islands and found more than 7,000 more than the previous count.
“Nihon Keizai Shimbun” stated on March 1 that the figures released in 1987 were based on the 1:25,000 scale chart of the Japanese Coast Guard, which manually selected islands with a circumference of more than 100 meters. This measurement was automatically calculated by the Japanese National Geological Institute based on the basic electronic national land map of aerial photos and satellite images, using computers. Government officials in charge of the project explained that the number of islands has doubled due to developments in surveying techniques, including improvements in the resolution of aerial photographs. Even so, Japan’s Land Geographical Institute told NHK TV reporters on February 28 that artificially reclaimed islands, islands in the middle of lakes and sandbars in rivers are not included in this figure. The agency also emphasized that this statistical result has “no impact” on Japan’s territory or territorial waters, and the number of Japan’s “islands on the national border” has not changed.
Gizmodo, a well-known American technology blog, said on March 3 that volcanic eruptions in the past 35 years were also responsible for the formation of new islands in Japan. The article also believes that the number of Japan’s islands has “international significance” because the islands can “accurately describe the rights of Japan and other countries in the waters of the region.”
Okinotori Reef was counted as expected
Yoshihiko Yamada, a Japanese expert on marine issues, told Japan’s “Shincho Weekly” on the 2nd, “For a long time, people have known that Japan has more than 100,000 islands, including small sandbars. Now, with the development of satellite measurement technology, it is possible to accurately identify outlying islands. It is not difficult, and the number of islands has increased to more than 14,000, which should include Okinotori, the southernmost tip of Japan.”
Sure enough, Okinotori Reef on the southern border of Japan was “double-labeled” by Japan. According to the “Yomiuri Shimbun”: “Although the circumference of ‘Okinotori’ is less than 100 meters, it is also included in this time. .”
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an island is a naturally formed area of land surrounded by water that is above water at high tide. However, rocks that cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own should not have an exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.
In contrast, the definition of islands by Japan’s National Geographical Agency does not emphasize the term “capable of sustaining human habitation”. Liu Jiangyong, vice president of the Chinese Society for the History of Sino-Japanese Relations, told the “Global Times” reporter on the 3rd that Japan is now using satellite technology or other high-tech measurement technology, which makes the measurement of the island more accurate. However, whether these newly added “islands” claimed by Japan conform to the definition of islands in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and whether it can claim an exclusive economic zone or a continental shelf is still open to question.
Liu Jiangyong believes that some of these newly discovered “islands” claimed by Japan may be uninhabited “islands”, and even do not have the conditions for human habitation at all, such as no fresh water. In this way, no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf can be delineated for these “islands”.
“Japan is likely to have more disputes with its neighbors in the future”
As for how to use the re-counted number of islands, Japan’s Land Geographical Institute stated that “it will be used in government statistics and school textbooks in the future.”
However, the “Shincho Weekly” issued on March 2 pointed out that Japan began to re-investigate the number of islands for defense purposes. The cause is that in December 2021, Liberal Democratic Party Senate member Arimura Harako pointed out at the Senate plenary meeting that the number of islands in the prefecture listed on the official website of the Okinawa prefectural government is 160, while the Japanese government listed 363 islands based on a survey by the Coast Guard. indivual. “The discrepancy between the number of islands recognized by Okinawa Prefecture and the number of islands controlled by the government will not only hinder the defense of outlying islands, but also be detrimental to the protection of fishing rights. Doesn’t Prime Minister Kishida think it is necessary for the government to give a unified statement on the number of islands? numbers?”
When CNN reported that Japan suddenly had more than 7,000 small islands, it specifically listed the many island sovereignty disputes between Japan and Russia, China, and South Korea. Some Japanese netizens jokingly asked, “Is Sakhalin Island (Sakhalin Island) included?” “Is Bamboo Island (called Dokdo in South Korea) included? That is also a Japanese island.”
“Islands involve maritime rights and interests. No matter how Japan has measured so many islands, since it has announced that it owns so many islands, it is very likely that Japan will have more territorial disputes with neighboring countries in the future.” Hu Bo, director of the Ocean Strategy Research Center of Peking University 3 In an interview with the “Global Times” reporter, Japan pointed out that Japan claimed that there were more than 7,000 “islands” at once, “it is difficult to explain it reasonably from a technical perspective.”
[原标题]Japan suddenly claimed that there were more than 7,000 small islands, which implied calculations of maritime territory
source | Global Times