Minami-Tori-shima , also known as Marcus Island, is an isolated Japanese coral atoll in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, located some 1,848 kilometres southeast of Tokyo and 1,267 kilometres east of the closest Japanese island, South Iwo Jima of the Ogasawara Islands, and nearly on a straight line between mainland Tokyo and the United States' Wake Island, 1,415 kilometres further to the east-southeast. The closest island to Minami-Tori-shima is East Island in the Mariana Islands, which is 1,015 kilometres to the west-southwest. The meaning of its Japanese name is Southern Bird Island. It is the easternmost territory belonging to Japan, and the only Japanese territory on the Pacific Plate, past the Japan Trench. Although very small and without a civilian population, it is of strategic importance, as it enables Japan to claim a 428,875 square kilometres Exclusive Economic Zone in the surrounding waters. It is also the easternmost territory of Tokyo, being administratively part of Ogasawara village.
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