The Japanese coastguard is searching for an island that has gone missing off Hokkaido.





The island of Esanbe Hanakita Kojima, which was formally named in 2014 by Tokyo in an effort to reinforce its legal control over hundreds of outlying islands and extend its exclusive economic zone, appears to have sunk without trace..





It was last the subject of a formal survey in 1987, when records indicated its high point was approximately 1.4 metres above the average sea level, the Asahinewspaper reported.





Lying about 500 metres off the coast close to the village of Sarufutsu, the island had served to extend Japan’s EEZ a similar distance out to sea in an area where Japanese waters butt up against Russian territory.



