Apple map app uses both names for disputed islands

The Apple iPhone 5 uses the alternate names for the Senkaku Islands, over which Japan and China have a territorial dispute, and the Korean islets of Dokdo in its new mapping system.

On the iPhone 5,which hit the market Friday, when a user searches for the Japan-controlled Senkaku (called Diaoyu in China), two sets of the islands appear marked as Ishigaki of Japan`s Okinawa Prefecture. The glitch is meant to show the same islands in two sets.

When searching for Diaoyu, the same sets of islands also appeared but the mapping system did not show their address while their latitude and longitude were marked. Apple made it possible for users to search the disputed islands in both languages.

Apple did the same thing for Dokdo, Korea’s easternmost islets, which Japan calls Takeshima. When searched in the Korean name and on the iPhone 5 whose primary language is set in Korean, the islets appear as Dokdo. When searching for Takeshima in the Japanese-language setting, the islets also appear.

Google Maps, which was used in the previous iPhone models, showed Dokdo when it was searched under the Korean name. When searching for Takeshima, however, it showed another island in Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture.