ITM Publications

Japan West & Central Railway & Road Travel Reference ITM Publications

Japan is too large and densely populated a country to show effectively on one map while showing all the attractions and smaller towns of the country. With this map, we are attempting to concentrate on the way the vast majority of visitors travel around Japan - by rail. The road network is still shown in excellent detail, but the rail routes that connect Tokyo to Osaka, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, and to the northern coastal cities of Nigata and Kanazawa are the way most visitors to Japan explore the country. The map also includes an excellent inset map of central Tokyo on one side and another of Osaka on the other side The map extends from Fukoka in the west to Tokyo in the east and to Sendai in the north, and includes many of the most popularly-visited cities of Japan, showing all the Shinkensen "bullet" train routes as well as the non-express regular lines. Japan has the most advanced rail network in the world, and this map captures its essence. The scale is 1:670.000.