Japan said on Thursday (10) that it requested a review of a new world map adopted by the United Nations because it implied that the disputed Kuril Islands belonged to Russia. The UN General Assembly voted last Friday (4) to adopt the new map, which enlarges the African continent and reduces North America and Europe, drawing condemnation from the United States.
Japan was among the 164 UN members that supported the resolution, but now questions the representation because it shows the Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, with the same color as Russia. Japan's chief government spokesman, Minoru Kihara, said the new map, known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection, contained a representation that contradicts the Japanese government's position.
Kihara told reporters that he submitted a protest to the map website operator through Japanese diplomatic channels to demand the correction of that representation. He refused to say which specific diplomatic channels were used in the complaint.
