The Geographical Survey Institute has announced (Japanese) that, in the year to October 2008, Japan's land mass increased by 13.58 km² to a new total of 377, 943.57 km² as a result of land reclamation projects around the country. For those of you conditioned by the media to think of area in terms of sports stadiums, this is equivalent to 289 Tokyo Domes. The largest contribution noted by the Institute is the controversial Isahaya Bay project in Nagasaki (pictured above) which alone added 8.75 km². The reclamation work in Yamaguchi being undertaken for the Iwakuni runway relocation project has added 1.07 km². According to the Institute's data going back to 1988, (PDF) the 2008 increase is the second largest since 1992 when 50.15 km² were added as a result of recalculations for the disputed northern isles.
