It turns out that Shimane Prefecture has a legend called Tale of Kunibiki according to which gods created Japan by pulling lands from far over the sea.  So Japan was created out of scraps stolen from other countries?  This shameless legend is interesting from engineering point of view but also offers a glimpse of the mentality behind Shimane assemblymen who, no doubt, grew up with the lengend.

I better alert Homeland Security Department to watch out for ropes around Hawaiian islands.