gsi-global-map-jp

Global Map Japan (地球地図日本): the 1:1,000,000 map of the whole of Japan that the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) made to the Global Map Specifications of the International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM). Vector layers of administrative boundaries, drainage, population centres and transportation, one GeoParquet subset per version and layer, beside the zips GSI serves; and four rasters (elevation, land cover, land use, vegetation) as GSI's zips only.

GSI Content Terms of Use, which apply the Public Data License 1.0 (PDL1.0), compatible with CC BY 4.0 (see Licence). Credit GSI as shown there.

Versions

GSI publishes every version from one page, https://www.gsi.go.jp/kankyochiri/gm_jpn.html, and is the only primary distributor of the Japanese edition: the Global Map data archives on GitHub (https://globalmaps.github.io/) point back to it. Each version is a fixed release, so each is kept here under its own name.

version	published	what changed, in GSI's words	zips here
vector-2.2	2016	"地球地図第2.1版のうち、交通のうち道路・鉄道・鉄道駅を時点修正（2016年3月26日現在）" (roads, railways and stations of 2.1 brought up to 26 March 2016)	all layers, transportation
vector-2.1	2015	"地球地図第2版のうち、境界及び交通のうち空港のみを時点修正（2015年1月1日現在）" (boundaries and, of transportation, only airports of 2.0 brought up to 1 January 2015)	all layers, boundaries, transportation
vector-2.0	2011	the second edition	all layers, boundaries, drainage, population centres, transportation
raster-1.1	2006		elevation, land cover, land use, vegetation
raster-1.0	2000		elevation, land cover, land use, vegetation

Every vector version's all-layers zip holds all 15 layers, including those the version did not update. The theme zips of a version hold byte-identical copies of the same files (checked by CRC), so the Parquet is made from the all-layers zip. The page's table also gives a Global Map Specifications version for each file (2.2 for the vectors, 1.2.1 for the rasters); that is the specification, not the map version.

Subsets and columns

One subset per vector version and layer, named <version>.<layer>, for example vector-2.2.coastl, at parquet/<version>/<layer>.parquet. The layer is the Shapefile's name without _jpn.

theme	layer	geometry	f_code	2.0	2.1	2.2	attribute columns
boundaries	polbnda administrative areas	Polygon	FA001	2,924	2,914	2,914	f_code, coc, nam, laa, pop, ypc, adm_code, salb, soc
boundaries	polbndl administrative boundary lines	LineString	FA000	4,877	4,866	4,866	f_code, bst, use, soc
boundaries	coastl coastline	LineString	BA010	1,201	1,204	1,204	f_code, acc, exs, soc
drainage	riverl rivers	LineString	BH140	4,795	4,795	4,795	f_code, hyc, lit, nam, soc
drainage	inwatera inland water	Polygon	BH000	825	825	825	f_code, hyc, hyt, nam, soc
drainage	miscl	LineString	BI020	29	29	29	f_code, soc
drainage	miscp	Point	BI020	271	271	271	f_code, soc
population centres	builtupa built-up areas	Polygon	AL020	221	221	221	f_code, pop, ypc, nam, soc
population centres	builtupp built-up places	Point	AL020	1,640	1,640	1,640	f_code, pop, ypc, nam, soc
transportation	roadl roads	LineString	AP030	31,460	31,451	31,642	f_code, acc, exs, rst, med, rtt, RSU, loc, soc
transportation	raill railways	LineString	AN010	3,377	3,377	3,420	f_code, exs, fco, loc, soc
transportation	rstatp railway stations	Point	AQ125	89	89	108	f_code, nam, soc
transportation	airp airports	Point	GB005	93	92	92	f_code, iko, ita, nam, use, zv3, soc
transportation	portp ports	Point	AQ080	128	128	128	f_code, nam, soc
transportation	ferryl ferry routes	LineString	AQ070	556	556	556	f_code, tuc, soc

The attribute names and codes are those of the Global Map Specifications (https://github.com/globalmaps/specifications), which define each one; f_code is the feature class, soc the country (JPN in every row), nam the name, laa the municipality, adm_code the five-digit municipality code (01100 is Sapporo), iko and ita the ICAO and IATA codes, pop the population and ypc its year.

The type of a column comes from its name, never from inference:

columns	type
fid	BIGINT, added here: the record's position in the Shapefile, from 0; rows keep that order
pop, ypc, acc, exs, rst, med, rtt, RSU, loc, use, zv3, hyc, hyt, lit, bst, tuc, fco	INTEGER
everything else (f_code, coc, nam, laa, adm_code, salb, soc, iko, ita)	the text of the DBF; adm_code keeps its leading zeros
geometry	the Shapefile's geometry, in the CRS its .prj names (below)

Column names are as in the DBF. roadl has an upper-case RSU; it clashes with no other column, so it is kept as it is.

Coordinate reference systems

Coordinates are longitude and latitude in degrees, never reprojected. Each GeoParquet states the CRS that its Shapefile's .prj names; the .prj texts are not all the same:

.prj says	identified as	layers
GEOGCS["GCS_ITRF_1994",DATUM["D_ITRF_1994",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137.0,298.257222101]],...]	EPSG:8994 (ITRF94)	every layer of 2.0; every layer of 2.1 and 2.2 except those below
GEOGCS["GCS_JGD_2000",DATUM["D_JGD_2000",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137.0,298.257222101]],...]	EPSG:4612 (JGD2000)	airp of 2.1 and 2.2
GEOGCS["JGD2000",DATUM["D_JGD_2000",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137,298.257222101]],...]	EPSG:4612 (JGD2000)	roadl of 2.2

The metadata of 2.1 and 2.2 (.met, Global Map Metadata Profile XML) names ITRF94 and GRS80 for every theme, transportation included. GSI's FAQ (https://www.gsi.go.jp/kankyochiri/gm_faq.html) says that at the accuracy and scale of Global Map the difference from WGS 84 is negligible ("地球地図データ の精度や縮尺レベルの場合、WGS84座標系との差はほとんど無い"). So the change of name in two layers is a change of label, not of datum in any sense that matters at 1:1,000,000; but the files say what they say, and so do the GeoParquet files. ITRF94 is identified by GDAL as EPSG:8994, a dynamic frame with epoch 1993.0, which some tools handle less well than EPSG:4612 or EPSG:4326.

-- DuckDB, straight off the Hub: the most populous municipalities of Hokkaido in 2.2
SELECT laa, adm_code, pop, ypc
FROM 'hf://datasets/yuiseki/gsi-global-map-jp/parquet/vector-2.2/polbnda.parquet'
WHERE nam = 'Hokkai Do' AND pop >= 0
ORDER BY pop DESC LIMIT 10;

-- three airports with their coordinates (the spatial extension reads the geometry)
INSTALL spatial; LOAD spatial;
SELECT nam, iko, ita, ST_X(geometry) AS lon, ST_Y(geometry) AS lat
FROM 'hf://datasets/yuiseki/gsi-global-map-jp/parquet/vector-2.2/airp.parquet'
WHERE ita IN ('HND', 'NRT', 'KIX');

-- roads by their rtt code in 2.0 and 2.2
SELECT '2.0' AS version, rtt, count(*) FROM 'hf://datasets/yuiseki/gsi-global-map-jp/parquet/vector-2.0/roadl.parquet' GROUP BY ALL
UNION ALL
SELECT '2.2', rtt, count(*) FROM 'hf://datasets/yuiseki/gsi-global-map-jp/parquet/vector-2.2/roadl.parquet' GROUP BY ALL
ORDER BY 2, 1;

Rasters

The rasters are published only as GSI's zips, under raw/raster-1.0/ and raw/raster-1.1/: gm-jpn-<el|lc|lu|ve>_u_<1_0|1_1>.zip, each holding jpn/<kind>.tif, a world file .tfw, an ArcGIS .aux and Read_me.txt. The images are 8-bit with a colour map, 30 arc-seconds a pixel (0.00833333 degrees), the centre of the upper-left pixel at 120.004 E, 49.996 N. Those of 1.0 are PackBits compressed TIFF without GeoTIFF keys, placed by the world file alone; those of 1.1 are uncompressed GeoTIFF. The 1.1 elevation is 4,199 pixels wide, the others 4,200; all are 3,600 high. GSI's page says there is no legend for elevation ("標高については凡例はございません") and refers to the Global Map Specifications for the others.

Things to know

• All names are romanised; there is no Japanese text in any DBF. Prefectures and municipalities separate the kind of body (Hokkai Do, Sapporo Shi); points, built-up areas, airports, ports and stations are upper case (SAPPORO, ABASHIRI PORT).

• The DBFs carry no .cpg. Their language driver byte is 0x13 (code page 932, Japanese) in most layers, and 0 (none) in airp, coastl, polbnda, polbndl and roadl of 2.1 and 2.2 and in rstatp of 2.2. Every byte of every DBF is ASCII, so the code page makes no difference.

• pop has two codes that are not counts: -99999999 and -89999999. In builtupa and builtupp every row is -99999999, with ypc 0: no population is given for built-up areas in any version. In polbnda a municipality made of several polygons carries its population on one of them and -89999999 on the others (1,159 rows in 2.2, 1,160 in 2.0); 14 rows are -99999999 with ypc 0: eight with adm_code UNK (in Tokyo and Aichi) and the six villages of the Northern Territories (01695 to 01700). Filter on pop >= 0 before summing; in 2.2 that gives 128,438,348 for ypc 2014, in 2.0 127,767,994 for 2005.

• GSI replaced the all-layers zip of 2.2 in July 2023 without announcing it (Last-Modified 19 July 2023; only polbnda_jpn.* inside is dated 2023-07-19). Its polbnda differs from that of 2.1 in five rows, all romanisation and attribution fixes, with identical geometry:

  fid	adm_code	2.1 (nam / laa)	2.2
  52, 53, 54	01331	Hokkai Do / Masaki Cho	Hokkai Do / Matsumae Cho
  403	06024	Akita Ken / Higashinaruse Mura	Yamagata Ken / Sakata Shi
  2110	38401	Ehime Ken / Matsumae Cho	Ehime Ken / Masaki Cho

  The 2.1 zips (gm-jpn-bnd_u_2_1.zip and gm-jpn-all_u_2_1.zip) were not corrected, and neither was 2.0, so vector-2.1.polbnda and vector-2.0.polbnda still have the two Matsumae and Masaki swapped and 06024 under Akita. The copy of the 2.2 zip from before July 2023 is not available.

• The transportation zip of 2.2 was also replaced, in May 2017: its roadl_jpn.* are dated 2017-04-28 and its .prj names JGD2000 where every other layer names ITRF94. The all-layers zip of 2.2 holds the same roadl. The earlier copy is not available either.

• One record of vector-2.2.roadl (fid 31615) and one of vector-2.2.raill (fid 2704) have an empty shape in the Shapefile; their geometry is NULL.

• laa of polbnda reads " Ogasawara Mura" with a leading space in the DBF of every version (fid 2916 in 2.0, 881 in 2.1 and 2.2). GDAL trims it, so the Parquet has Ogasawara Mura.

• ferryl, miscl and riverl of every version, raill of 2.0 and 2.1, and coastl and polbndl of 2.0 are PolyLineM Shapefiles. Their M values are all 0 or the Shapefile no-data value; they were dropped, since GeoParquet 1.0 has no M.

• A theme zip holds a byte-identical subset of its version's all-layers zip, except that the 2.1 transportation zip adds a Read_me.txt the all-layers zip lacks. That Read_me.txt and the .met metadata of 2.1 and 2.2 carry an old condition of use; see Licence.

Checked before upload

scripts/02_verify.py in the source repository checks, with DuckDB, every vector layer of every version against the Shapefiles in GSI's zip, read with a small reader of its own rather than GDAL:

• the zips have the sha256 in their MANIFEST.json, and every theme zip holds byte-identical copies (CRC) of the all-layers zip's layer files
• the row count equals the DBF header and the .shp records, and the pinned count in the table above
• every attribute value of every record equals the DBF text (trimmed; integers parsed), 1,176,455 values in all
• every geometry has the x and y of its .shp record, coordinate by coordinate, in order (2,999,080 points in all); empty shapes are the NULL geometries; the M values dropped were only 0 or no-data
• every column has the type the rule gives its name
• the GeoParquet 1.0.0 metadata states the CRS the layer's .prj names
• a DuckDB without the spatial extension opens every file
• no row group carries a bloom filter
• polbnda of 2.2 differs from that of 2.1 in exactly the five rows above, with all 2,914 geometries identical

Licence

GSI's page for Global Map Japan (https://www.gsi.go.jp/kankyochiri/gm_jpn.html):

本データには、「国土地理院コンテンツ利用規約」が適用されます。

(The GSI Content Terms of Use apply to this data.)

GSI Content Terms of Use (https://www.gsi.go.jp/kikakuchousei/kikakuchousei40182.html, as amended on 20 November 2025, read on 2026-10-03):

本サイトのコンテンツには特段の記載が無い限り公共データ利用規約（第1.0 版）（PDL1.0）が適用されています。

(Unless stated otherwise, the Public Data License version 1.0 (PDL1.0) applies to the content of this site.)

ア　コンテンツを利用する際は、出典を記載してください。出典の記載方法は以下の例を参考にしてください。 （出典記載例） 出典：国土地理院ウェブサイト　（当該ページのURL）

イ　コンテンツを編集・加工等して利用する場合は、上記出典とは別に、編集・加工等を行ったことを記載してください。（略）なお、編集・加工した情報を、あたかも国土地理院が作成したかのような態様で公表・利用してはいけません。

(Credit the source, for example "出典：国土地理院ウェブサイト" with the URL of the page. When you edit or process the content, say so separately from the credit, and do not present the edited information as if GSI had made it.)

GSI's Global Map FAQ (https://www.gsi.go.jp/kankyochiri/gm_faq.html, read on 2026-10-03):

地球地図日本の場合、商用・非商用に関わらず、出典の記載をお願いしています。

(For Global Map Japan, credit the source whether the use is commercial or not.) Its example credit is Global Map Japan and © Geospatial Information Authority of Japan.

PDL1.0 is compatible with CC BY 4.0, which is why the card says cc-by-4.0: reuse, commercial use and redistribution are allowed with credit. The terms that apply are GSI's, quoted above. Credit, for example:

出典：国土地理院ウェブサイト（https://www.gsi.go.jp/kankyochiri/gm_jpn.html）
Global Map Japan, © Geospatial Information Authority of Japan
GeoParquet converted from GSI's Shapefiles by yuiseki/gsi-global-map-jp

The Read_me.txt in the 2.0 and raster zips says the same: "The data is available at no charge, regardless of the non-profit objectives and commercial use, under the "Geospatial Information Authority of Japan Website Terms of Use"".

The .met metadata in the 2.1 and 2.2 zips (dated 2015 and 2016) still carries an older condition, in otherConstraints, and the Read_me.txt of the 2.1 transportation zip carries the same words:

Global Map Japan is subject to copyright law of Japan and copyright protection by an international treaty. Application procedure is required in using the product, except for non-commercial purpose and use in small quantity. Acknowledgement of written sources and report of utilization in an appropriate manner is necessary in using the product. (In case of use in small quantity, acknowledgement of written sources is necessary, but report of utilization is not required.)

That condition is outdated. The current terms are those of GSI's page, its FAQ and the Content Terms of Use quoted above (no application, commercial use allowed, credit required). The .met and Read_me.txt files are left inside GSI's zips as they are.

The zips under raw/ are GSI's, byte for byte. The Parquet is made from them; what was changed is listed in LICENSE beside this file. GSI did not make the Parquet and has not reviewed it.

Citation

Geospatial Information Authority of Japan. Global Map Japan (地球地図日本), vector versions 2.0 (2011), 2.1 (2015) and 2.2 (2016), raster versions 1.0 (2000) and 1.1 (2006). GSI Technical Reports D1-No.576 (vector, second edition), D1-No.459 (version 1.0) and D1-No.464 (version 1.1). https://www.gsi.go.jp/kankyochiri/gm_jpn.html