It's not just Japan's population that is shrinking. The territory of the Land of the Rising Sun is also undergoing disappointing changes. Residents of the Sarufutsu village of Hokkaido, one of Japan's northernmost islands, noticed in October that the tiny island just off the coast had simply disappeared.
Who Stole the Japanese Island?
The Japanese coast guard claims that when the borders of Hokkaido were last patrolled (and this happened 30 years ago), the island off its coast still existed and rose 1.4 meters above sea level.
Four years ago, this rocky land area even received an official name from the country's authorities - Esnabe Hanakita Kojima, becoming one of 158 uninhabited islands that Japan considers to be its own and claims its right to which publicly.
The country's authorities are extremely concerned about the disappearance of Esnabe Hanaktia Kojima. This tiny islet is part of the chain that forms Japan's maritime border, and its disappearance could mean that its territorial waters have shrunk. The island will be looking for: the coast guard has already announced that it is going to investigate this case.
Japanese media, citing representatives of the Hokkaido Coast Guard and the Maritime Department, put forward a version that the island could have disappeared from the face of the earth as a result of natural soil erosion and ice drift in the Sea of Okhotsk, which separates Hokkaido from Russian Sakhalin.
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Author: Madina Kemova