The Japan National Tourist Organization publishes four tourist maps covering Japan, Tokyo, Kansai and Kyoto. These are available free at JNTO offices abroad and at the TICs in Japan, and are perfectly adequate for most purposes. Tourist offices in other areas usually provide local maps, which are of varying quality, and often only in Japanese, but generally adequate. If you need anything more detailed, most bookshops sell maps, though you'll only find English-language maps in the big cities (see individual city Listings for details). By far the most useful are the bilingual maps published by Kodansha or Shobunsha, which are available from specialist shops outside Japan . Kodansha's Tokyo City Atlas and Kyoto-Osaka Bilingual Atlas are a must for anyone spending more than a few days in these cities, while Shobunsha's Japan Road Atlas is the best available map for exploring by car. If you're hiking , an excellent guide is the relevant Area Map , published by Shobunsha in Japanese only.

Note that maps on signboards in Japan, such as a map of footpaths in a national park, are usually oriented the way you are facing. So, if you're facing southeast, for example, as you look at the map, the top will be southeast and the bottom northwest.