Residents of the fishing village seemed to confirm that while they could previously see it from the shore, they no longer could.
Apparently, a Japanese author who once produced a book about Japanese islands noticed that the spot, called Esanbehanakitakojima, didn’t seem to be there anymore.
It seems that recently, a small island that used to be visible off Japan no longer is.
This is causing some to go “search” for the island in order to see what happened.