Editor's note: "Ritokei News (http://ritokei.com)" is a young media outlet founded in 2012 with remote islands as its theme, continuously communicating through its website and print publications the current situation of Japan's remote islands, the real lives of their residents, and the problems they face. NewsMarket interviewed editor-in-chief Atsuko Kujira moto this time, publishing the piece in two parts. The first part discusses the operation of Ritokei News, the responsibilities of editing, and the development of new projects; the second part discusses the issues of remote islands and the actions taken by the islands themselves.

The first media outlet themed around remote islands

Everyone knows Japan is an island nation, but do you know how many islands Japan has in total? 300? 500? 1000?

According to statistics from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the number is as high as 6,852! The five largest islands - Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Okinawa - are called the "mainland," while the other 6,847 are called "remote islands."

Among these remote islands, according to the 2010 national census, there are 418 islands that are inhabited.

In October 2010, with these 400-plus inhabited islands as its reporting focus, Japan's first online media outlet themed around "remote islands" was born - Ritokei News.

Ritokei News, commonly known as "Ritokei," was founded by Atsuko Kujira moto and several partners, and currently mainly operates the website "Ritokei News" and the print quarterly "ritokei."

(To read the Japan Correspondence series, please click here)

([Japan Correspondence] series articles are funded by a special grant from the Jianzhen Environmental Education Foundation, but the foundation has no involvement whatsoever in news topic selection or interview writing, ensuring journalistic independence)