Comments on: Where Is Japan? It’s More Complicated Than You Think

By: Loony

Loony — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 20:19:00 +0000

nice compilation, very educating.
looking up how far borders of states with many islands EXACTLY go can be a pain in the butt when you only have some lame map pictures and google earth to go with.

thanks!

btw, people regularly confuse my homecountry austria with the rather larger continent australia =)

By: STOP LYING

STOP LYING — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 02:20:00 +0000

Hey….fuck you…. fuck you again fuck you….There is no such a thing as ‘Takeshima’, ‘Liancourt Rocks’, or ‘Sea of Japan’. There are only ‘Dokdo’ and ‘East Sea’. Stop distort Korean history. You Japanese will definitely go to the hell unless you stop distorting Korean history. You don’t have conscience??

By: Jo Somebody

Jo Somebody — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:19:00 +0000

The battle for Senkaku islands is basically a battle for land where there MAY be large oil and gas reserves. No one will be giving those up quickly!

By: SaraWyatt

SaraWyatt — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:18:00 +0000

BTW, it’s not just our generation and younger who are retarded when it comes to geography. I whipped out my unlabeled political map of the world on my mom (age 54) recently and asked her to point out certain very large countries that I expect people to be able to locate for one reason or another.

When asked “Where’s China?”
She pointed to India.
v.v

When asked “Which country is this?” while pointing to Brazil, the largest country in S.America, she couldn’t answer. So I gave her a hint, “They speak Portuguese.” To which she answered,
“Portugal!”
(I went crazy on her then and showed her where in EUROPE Portugal is located.)

After a depressing string of misses, I pointed to South Africa as a joke, to throw her a bone………….but hey, she didn’t know which country that was either. Come on, Mom. T^T

By: SaraWyatt

SaraWyatt — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:00:00 +0000

haha. I’m also a geography nerd who love to follow border disputes. Usually it’s a matter of the area’s dominant culture, language, religion versus the surrounding area, but it’s funny when the places are uninhabited and everyone basically just wants them to either piss on their neighbor’s doorstep or park a solitary amphibious vehicle on (just in case).
I had a nice, thorough look at the Kuril Islands via satellite imagery and tourists’ photos when they came to my attention during geology class. They’re nothing but active volcanoes and no where to run if one decides to erupt. I didn’t see any buildings, either. I think only people who want to die in their sleep of asphyxiation would live there.
That being said, I say give them to Japan. Geologically, they’re pretty closely related and without a population (except the occasional hermit) there’s really no cultural argument. Dokdo should go to Korea, obviously (Japan can be so annoying sometimes) and Diaoyutai to Taiwan based on distance (and my strong bias for Taiwanese independence ;P).

To complicate things further….. Did I not read somewhere that there’s a (foolish) movement in the Ryukyu Islands for Independence? Not to mention that whole thing (that is so not going to happen) with the poor Ainu people wanting Japan to give them Hokkaido. . .

By: Viet

Viet — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 04:49:00 +0000

Hmmm. Well.. It is to the left if I’m facing north. To my right if I’m facing south :P