The National Atlas of Japan

Japan · 1990

Editors’ Accounts

Preparation of The National Atlas of Japan, revised edition

Unknown · 1995

This Japanese institutional account describes the five-year revision programme begun in 1986 and completed with publication of the revised National Atlas of Japan in November 1990, in Japanese and English. The edition contains 235 thematic maps with explanatory text across 14 subjects, in 218 A2-sized pages. The account traces committee oversight, data collection and analysis, editorial rules, cartography and printing, with particular attention to the Computer-aided Cartographic Processing System (CCPS). It explains the digitization of base maps and the production of choropleth, circle-graph and distribution maps. According to the account, CCPS was used for 60 per cent of the thematic maps, including manual operations, and simplified production while reducing time and costs. Some physical and climatic maps continued to use traditional techniques. The authors identify fuller automation as an unresolved task and outline plans for faster updates of selected thematic maps and electronic delivery of editable map data.

Reviews & Responses

Reviews: The national atlas of Japan. Rev. ed.

Sofus Christiansen · 1992

Sofus Christiansen reviews the 1990 revised edition of The National Atlas of Japan, compiled by the Geographical Survey Institute. Its approximately 500 maps cover physical, social, and economic conditions, with population and economic activities occupying most of the volume. He particularly praises the treatment of seismic phenomena and crustal movements. Reservations concern the dating of most maps to 1985 and agricultural maps showing monetary values without yields per hectare. Despite these limitations, Christiansen commends the atlas’s breadth, printing, and scholarly quality, judging it to set a new standard for national atlases.

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