When looking at a map, many people may often use their own country as a standard by comparing it with the geographic features and locations of other countries. The Japanese, however, have gone an extra step and created a map that uses their own country as a standard for the world itself.

The Japan archipelago is composed of the four main islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, as well as thousands of smaller islands, including Okinawa. The map you see above was made by rearranging the location of the various islands and adjusting their sizes to look like a map of the world.

This transforms Honshu into the Americas, Kyushu into Eurasia, Hokkaido into Africa and Shikoku into Australia. Okinawa assumes the role of New Zealand, and Sado Island fills the position of the British Isles.

The pieces fit together well enough that one could make a rather convincing WWII propaganda poster. Indeed, even more startling than the degree of ingenuity undoubtedly used to piece together this map is the fact that the world’s authorities on geography have gone oblivious to this revelation for so long.

Incidentally, according to this map, the RocketNews 24 editorial staff ends up somewhere in Northern Quebec, while this translator finds himself somewhere in the Southeast of the United States, near the land-bridge that seems to have formed in the unseemly fusion of Florida and Brazil.

So, where did you fall in the formation of this Japangaea?

Translator: Steven