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jpmap is intentionally named and designed as a Japan
counterpart to usmap:
users should be able to ask for a map, join ordinary tabular data, and
plot a choropleth or point map without first becoming GIS
specialists.
The package focuses on four things together:
jp_map() / plot_jpmap()
workflow;| Package or project | Main use | Difference from jpmap |
|---|---|---|
NipponMap |
Simple prefecture maps and circle cartograms. | Prefecture-level only. Its manual notes that boundaries are simplified by hand and omit minor islands. |
jpndistrict |
Japanese administrative areas, offices, and reverse geocoding. | Historically important, but archived from CRAN. It does not provide
a plot_jpmap()-style static map workflow. |
UchidaMizuki/jpmap |
Prefecture sf data and layout_japan() for
ggplot2. |
Prefecture-level only and GitHub-only. |
kokudosuuchi |
Download and read National Land Numerical Information data. | A data-access utility rather than an opinionated map plotting package. |
jpcity |
Municipality code and name conversion. | A useful companion package, not a boundary or map plotting package. |
jpgrid
and jpmesh |
Japanese grid-square and mesh-code workflows. | Mesh/grid maps rather than prefecture and municipality choropleth maps. |
maps and
mapdata |
General legacy map databases. | Not Japan-administrative-boundary focused; mapdata
notes that its world map is outdated. |
geodata
and rnaturalearth |
General global geographic data. | Useful for global context, but not a Japan-first plotting workflow. |
There are also many small scripts and example repositories that show
how to download a shapefile and draw a one-off Japan map. Those are
useful examples, but jpmap aims to make the repeated
workflow reusable.
Japan map packages handle disputed areas inconsistently. In a source and documentation check on June 14, 2026, the packages above did not provide a documented user-facing option equivalent to:
jpndistrict source data includes rows for some Northern
Territories municipalities, but that is not the same as an explicit
disputed-territory layer with documented inclusion/exclusion controls,
separate styling options, and documented source notes.
Users can remove disputed-territory shapes with
territorial_disputes = FALSE, include only selected areas,
or highlight them with disputed_fill and
disputed_dots.
Use jpmap when your goal is to publish or analyze a
Japan map with ordinary R data:
library(jpmap)
plot_jpmap("prefecture")
plot_jpmap("municipality", include = "Okinawa")
plot_jpmap("prefecture", territorial_disputes = FALSE)Use companion packages when they solve a more specific part of the
workflow: jpcity for code conversion,
kokudosuuchi for lower-level access to MLIT datasets, and
jpgrid or jpmesh for grid-square analysis.
These binaries (installable software) and packages are in development.
They may not be fully stable and should be used with caution. We make no claims about them.
Health stats visible at Monitor.