Marshall Islands Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands (), are an island country and a United States associated state near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the International Date Line. Geographically, the country is part of the larger island group of Micronesia. The country's population of 53,158 people (at the 2011 Census) is spread out over 29 coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The islands share maritime boundaries with the Federated States of Micronesia to the west, Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the southeast, and Nauru to the south.
Japanese settlement in the Marshall Islands in the corporate, public and political sectors in the country. The earliest Japanese contact with the Marshall Islands dates back to 1884, when a group of pearl divers were blown off course to Lae Atoll during their return voyage from Australia. The pearl divers were believed to be murdered, after the "Ada", a British trading ship sailed past the Marshall Islands and found the skeletal remains of the pearl divers. When news of the purported murder reached the Japanese government, two Japanese envoys–Goto Taketaro (a son of Goto Shojiro) and Suzuki Tsunenori were sent to the Marshall Islands. The envoys