#5: Japan’s Islands

This fun fact is pretty recent, which makes it even more awesome. Japan recently discovered 7,000 additional islands that exist within its territory. There are now 14,125 known islands in Japan’s territory. Japan’s territory is still the same size, so how in the world does this happen? Well, advances in technology have certainly helped!

Japan’s previous “official” record of its islands came in at 6,852. However, that statistic was recorded in 1987 and hadn’t been updated for over 30 years. Mapping and surveying technology advances helped surveyors “discover” the additional 7,000 islands. It’s pretty cool to think that these islands have always existed. Most of us just didn’t know about them.