Middle school: starter course for inquiry

Grasp the "big picture" and "ways of seeing" in 3–10 minutes. Easy to spin off inquiry questions.

The standard map service that lets you cut across maps, routes, Street View, and reviews worldwide. With Gemini AI–powered "Ask Maps" you can do natural conversational searches, and the 3D immersive navigation lets you confirm a route with on-site feel. A starting point for places, facilities, and traffic — usable at any age.

Layer topographic maps, aerial photos, elevation, and disaster information to read the "why of place".

Quickly strengthen the foundations of geography inquiry: bearings, scales, map symbols.

An entry that makes statistics "not scary". A first step in reading numbers.

Learn ways to see natural history and science from real examples of exhibits and research.

Programs and content for young children and elementary students, organized by theme.

JAXA's fun entry point: space exploration news, games, and activities for young learners.

Elementary-to-high-school content from Japan's ocean research and development agency.

Activities of the National Institute of Polar Research, Science Museum exhibits, and aurora footage.

Video content, research data, and educational materials from Japan's national astronomy research center.

The Ministry of Education's learning support portal for children, organized by subject.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' kids' site: learn, research, and play with countries of the world.

Video content and explanations of Japan's Self-Defense Forces, made accessible for children.

Kids and family portal of the US Library of Congress.

Encyclopaedia Britannica's kid-friendly portal — reliable reference for school research.

BBC's curriculum-aligned learning platform with video explanations and quizzes for UK school subjects.

Children's rights, SDGs, videos, quizzes, and research content in multiple languages.

400+ geography quizzes covering countries, capitals, flags, oceans, and lakes.

World changes since 1800 and Dollar Street: what life looks like sorted by income level.

Real-time global flight tracking — see aircraft positions, routes, and flight data live.

Real-time global vessel tracking using AIS data — ships, ferries, and cargo.

Traditional Japanese performing arts — kabuki, noh, bunraku — explained for children with video.

MIT Media Lab's free visual programming platform for ages 8–16.

Community-built Scratch projects simulating earthquakes and disaster scenarios for learning.

Curated Scratch studio with student-made disaster-preparedness simulations.

Scratch studio with community-created disaster information and earthquake educational materials.

Kids' coding with Minecraft, Frozen, and more — game-based introduction to programming.

Minecraft's Hour of Code activities for introducing programming concepts to beginners.

A faster, mod-friendly Scratch compiler — run and share Scratch projects at higher speed.

Scratch educator community operated by the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Japan's national library for children's literature — rare and historical children's books from Japan and abroad.

A "kid-oriented" entry that walks through the work and structure of the national government in one go.

Read the news in plain Japanese → easy to turn social issues into inquiry topics.

A grain close to textbooks, useful for catching the "big picture". Handy as an inquiry intro.

Strengthens the "definitions" that often weaken inquiry reports.

A friendly entry to primary sources. Move from exhibitions straight into the originals.

"Exhibition-style overviews" you can read by theme. The way to look at sources naturally develops.

A "kids-oriented" entry to start learning about disasters. A perfect match for local inquiry.

An entry to grasp overall trends intuitively with "graphs and maps" rather than statistical tables.

An entry into "how society of the time was seen" through film and video sources. Easy to use as inquiry material.

Read damage, reconstruction, and urban change with the documentary footage of the Great Kanto Earthquake as material.

Catch the inside stories of historical decisions in Japan and the world in 15–30 minute videos.

Grasp the dense stories of Sengoku warlords through dramatic visuals faithful to historical fact.

Understand Japanese and world history with people at the center.

The Smithsonian — one of the world's largest museum complexes — publishes its images, 3D models, and audio under CC0 Open Access. Young readers and researchers alike can reach world-class primary materials through the same door.

A free, collaboratively built encyclopedia of living things, compiled by public institutions, museums, and researchers worldwide. Photos, taxonomy, and distribution maps make it easy to trace "what is this creature?" from a name. English text, but readable even at elementary level through images and maps.

Official database collection from a Japanese national museum holding ethnographic records, audio, video, and photographs from around the world. A strong entry for comparative-culture inquiry across clothing, food, housing, and festivals.

The Met's official Open Access collection, releasing out-of-copyright works under CC0. High-resolution images can be used without permission, making it a shared entry point for children through researchers to handle real art objects.

A cross-cultural hub that brings together collections from museums and cultural sites worldwide, including Street View tours inside institutions. Accessible for children, but since it is privately operated, always trace each work back to its source institution.

A global community celebrating clouds — photographs, classifications, and the beauty of the sky.

Oxford-based public data visualization covering poverty, climate, education, and more.

The official list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites — search by country, region, and category.

Learn ways to see field sites and how to grasp value, with ruins and cultural properties as material.

Official commentary by the national museum. A useful entry to works, eras, and techniques.

An official channel that teaches the perspective of excavation and cultural property research.

Observe cultural properties in 3D. Good practice for forming hypotheses about form, use, and making.

Search by place name and the "layers of regional culture" become visible.

48 Japanese Geoparks, 10 of which are UNESCO Global Geoparks.

3D view and VR tours of the National Museum of Nature and Science exhibits.

Virtual tours and exhibition content from the National Institute of Polar Research science museum.

Japan's 8.2-m optical-infrared telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii — research results and public content.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array — joint international radio telescope in Chile.

Video archive and reference database for traditional performing arts — noh, kabuki, bunraku, and more.

Official streaming platform for traditional Japanese performing arts from the National Theatre.

NHK's geography exploration program where terrain shapes history and culture are revealed.

Observation data of temperature, precipitation, etc. For analyzing climate change and torrential rains.

When you can see clouds moving, weather and torrential-rain inquiry becomes concrete.

Input temperature and precipitation → draw a climograph or hyetograph, classify Köppen climate type, publish KML.

Climate charts and monthly temperature/precipitation data for thousands of locations worldwide.

Annual climate for locations worldwide in monthly, daily, and hourly charts. Interactive maps and city comparison help you practice reading climographs and plan trips or events.

Climate data for 100+ countries and 12,000+ locations.

The international standard for cloud classification by WMO. Definitions and identification flowcharts.

Interactive quizzes and simulators to learn about weather, typhoons, and earthquakes in a fun way.

Nationwide current conditions, forecasts, and rain-cloud radar from the Japan Weather Association.

Visible imagery from Himawari-8/9, updated every 2.5 minutes over Japan, with 11 zoom levels.

Wind and ocean current flows animated on a globe. Japanese interface available.

A Maps.com article on NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio animation "Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents," built on the ECCO model (2021–2023). Surface flows appear as white lines and deeper currents in blue, with 3D seafloor bathymetry—following western boundary currents from the Kuroshio to the Gulf Stream and eddies that can spin opposite ways at different depths.

Multi-layer visualization: radar, satellite, wind, rain, temperature, clouds, waves, and air quality.

Wind depicted as streamlines. Models: GFS, HRRR, GEM, ICON. Ad-free.

Global daily satellite imagery, updated within 3 hours of observation.

Real-time Earth imagery from NOAA satellites.

NASA 3D visual tool to explore Earth, the solar system, and space.

A geographic browser to fly around the entire planet in 3D. Visually grasp "the world now and then" through satellite imagery, terrain, 3D buildings, and Timelapse (year-by-year change of satellite photos). The "Voyager" feature also hosts 3D tours of World Heritage sites and stories on endangered species and the SDGs. An entry to geography, history, disaster prevention, and international comparison — usable at any age.

A location service that divides the world into 3-metre squares and assigns each one a unique address of three words. Over 57 trillion squares cover the globe, and the same square shows different words depending on the language setting (61 languages are supported per the official support pages, as of 2026). It can pinpoint parks, coastlines, mountain trails, and evacuation sites that have no street address, and police, fire, and ambulance services in the UK and elsewhere have adopted it. The app and online map are free; the business and developer API is paid, though it is offered free to emergency services and NGOs.

Confirm nationwide disaster risks (flood, landslide, storm surge, tsunami, etc.) from MLIT via the "Layered Hazard Map" and "My Town Hazard Map". An entry for local disaster prevention and geography inquiry.

Treats transaction prices, land prices, hazards, and city planning on the same map.

A pathway for how to use satellite data.

A historical map DB that lets you cross-search early-modern to modern maps. Read the change of place names, territories, transport routes, etc. as primary sources.

Overlay Edo, Meiji, and prewar old maps semi-transparently on modern maps. Visually read changes in place names, waterways, and roads. An entry to historical geography, usable from elementary to professional.

A site (independently run) that, with operations similar to the GSI Map, lets you overlay red-relief maps, contour lines, individually tiled old topographic maps, and detailed terrain maps. Supports two-pane display, measurement, drawing, and printing — works from middle-school regional / disaster-prevention / high school geography to university research and field surveys.

Japan's official source for seafloor topography, tides, ocean currents, territorial seas, and 3D marine maps. A primary information source for reading the links between landform, safety, fisheries, and the marine environment.

A volcano-visualization system from Japan's National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED). Seismic, tilt, temperature, and satellite observations are unified on a map so you can read "what is happening at this volcano now".

An international portal that cross-searches historical maps held by libraries and archives worldwide, from a geographic location. Complements David Rumsey for reading the same place across multiple period maps.

A public digital archive at Stanford University Libraries holding over 150,000 historical maps of the world, 15th century to present, at high resolution. Even young learners can enjoy "how people used to picture the world" as images.

MLIT's 3D city models. Buildings and features derived from aerial survey data, freely available.

Side-by-side switching of topographic maps from the Meiji era onward for 59 regions across Japan.

Old maps from Japan's Geospatial Information Authority — from Edo-period surveying to early modern topographic maps.

Web-based version of Ino Tadataka's famous surveyed map of Japan, overlaid on a modern map.

GSI's tool to estimate flood depths for buildings and land areas.

Detailed active-fault maps for major Japanese urban areas from GSI.

Long-term evaluations of active faults and subduction-zone earthquakes, and strong-motion predictions.

Japan's official real-time river flood and rainfall information from the Ministry of Land.

Real-time water level monitoring for rivers nationwide — video-linked observation points.

Switch between aerial photos from the 1970s to the present — some areas from 1936 — in a two-panel linked view.

Official YouTube channel of the Geospatial Information Authority — tutorials, time-lapse maps, and geographic features.

Type any city name and this visualiser draws every road it finds in OpenStreetMap as a single line-art plate. Lets you read the shape of a city at a glance — grid, radial, or organic where rivers and coastlines have reshaped it — and line up two cities side by side for comparison.

The prefectural disaster portal run by the Hokkaido Government Crisis Management Bureau. It gathers shelter-opening status by municipality, evacuation orders, weather warnings, and earthquake information, and lets you check evacuation sites on a map or as a list.

A forest map system published by the Hokkaido Government Fisheries and Forestry Department. Sub-compartment boundaries of privately owned forests covered by the regional forest plan can be browsed over base maps or aerial photographs, together with tree species, stand age, and restricted-forest status. It works on smartphones and tablets.

The prefectural disaster information portal run by the Aomori Prefectural Government Crisis Management Bureau. Alongside guidance on checking hazard maps, it gathers information drawn from the prefecture's disaster GIS, such as evacuation sites and major medical institutions.

Iwate Prefecture's public GIS. Layers from several fields — crime incidence, erosion-control GIS content such as landslide hazard zones, and designated-road maps — can be stacked on a single map. Municipal websites within the prefecture also point here for checking landslide risk areas.

An electronic map from Iwate Prefecture for finding barrier-free and universal-design facilities from the map itself. It runs on the same prefectural GIS platform as the Iwate Digital Map.

A page where Iwate Prefecture gathers walking maps from around the prefecture as part of its health-promotion work, leading through to courses created by individual municipalities.

The prefectural disaster portal run by the Miyagi Prefectural Government Crisis Management Department. It provides earthquake information and road-restriction information in real time, and doubles as the entrance to field-specific systems such as the prefecture's erosion-control and river-basin information systems.

A cultural-property map published by Yamagata Prefecture, showing the locations of archaeological sites (buried cultural property areas) together with nationally and prefecturally designated, nationally registered, and nationally selected cultural properties. GIS data export was added in January 2026.

The comprehensive river and erosion-control information site run by the Yamagata Prefectural Government Public Works Department. The prefecture is divided into seven districts, and water levels, rainfall, and live camera images can be checked from the map.

A web forest GIS publishing geographic information on forests and forestry in Fukushima Prefecture. For forests covered by the regional forest plan, locations can be checked readily by tree species and stand age.

The prefectural disaster portal run by the Disaster Countermeasures Division of the Fukushima Prefectural Government. It brings shelter information together with weather and disaster information in one place, and together with the prefecture's disaster website serves as the entrance to hazard maps.

A prefecture-wide integrated GIS built and operated jointly by Ibaraki Prefecture and every municipality within it. Map information held separately by the prefecture and by municipalities is published together on one electronic map, covering administrative information, everyday-life information, events, and tourism. It went into service in fiscal 2008.

A municipality-by-municipality list of the "Ibaraki Health Road" walking courses designated by Ibaraki Prefecture for health promotion, chosen so that everyone from children to older people can walk them safely. They can also be found on a map through the Ibaraki Digital Map.

Tochigi Prefecture's new integrated map system, in service since 11 March 2026. It brings disaster information and public-facility information — previously separate — onto a single map, covering hazard maps, real-time rainfall and river-level observations, real-time road and river camera images, the Tochigi cycle routes, major congestion points, and urban planning information such as land-use zoning. The former Tochigi map information system closed on 31 March 2026.

A site introducing walking courses selected by Tochigi Prefecture. It carries 167 courses across the prefecture and can be searched by municipality, with distance, walking time, and characteristics given for each course.

Gunma Prefecture's integrated GIS for residents. Information the prefecture holds on safety and security, along with practical everyday information, is placed on an electronic map. Many fields are published — tourism facilities, environment, welfare, healthcare, disaster preparedness — with both desktop and smartphone versions.

The tourism digital map on Gunma Prefecture's official tourism site — a digital version of the prefectural tourism map introducing sights and attractions across Gunma. Spots are presented by theme (hot springs, nature, food, traditional culture), and landmarks in each area appear as illustrations on the map itself.

Walking courses supervised by Gunma Prefecture, with course maps arranged by the prefecture's four regions — central, northern, western, and eastern Gunma.

An integrated GIS where geographic information held by Saitama Prefecture — hazard maps, barrier-free maps and more — is browsable across seven categories such as childcare and daily life, and healthcare and welfare. Multiple maps can be overlaid, and most can be downloaded as CSV, Excel, or shapefiles. The service opened on 30 January 2024.

On the site of Saitama Prefecture's health mileage programme, a list of walking courses recommended by individual municipalities. Tokorozawa, Tsurugashima, Moroyama, Yokoze, Satte, Kasukabe and others appear, and some courses are refreshed with the seasons.

The prefecture's integrated map site, publishing Chiba's administrative and regional information online through maps and imagery. It holds maps across many fields, including urban planning information and buried cultural property areas, and since April 2022 data can also be downloaded across 24 categories such as the locations of prefectural institutions.

A walking map created by Chiba Prefecture's dietary improvement volunteers, who picked roads that are easy to use and easy to walk locally and built courses of roughly 10,000 steps each. There are 102 courses in all, with step counts, distances, and times given for the whole route and for each landmark segment. Copies can also be consulted at the Chiba Prefectural Archives.

A page on which the health promotion division of the Chiba Prefectural Government gathers the walking maps individual municipalities have made for themselves, to be used alongside the prefecture's own walking map.

An integrated map that gathers the map services held by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's many bureaus into a single site, run jointly by the Bureau of Digital Services and GovTech Tokyo. Ten map layers spanning disaster preparedness, environment and nature, digital services, welfare, and waterworks can be freely combined and stacked on one screen. Three ready-made themes — protecting yourself from summer heat, preparing for an earthquake, and preparing for flooding — open with the relevant maps already combined. Layers include the Tokyo Heat Map, the Tokyo Damage Estimate Map, emergency water supply stations, TOKYO FREE Wi-Fi, and projected inundation areas. The full release began on 20 August 2026.

A portal run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Public Health that gathers walking courses created by wards, cities, and other bodies into one place. 555 courses are registered and can be searched by municipality, by major rail line, or by purpose. Each course carries estimates of distance, walking time, calories burned, and step count, with the conversion assumptions (4 km/h, 70 cm per step, 60 kg body weight) stated on the site. Features such as "Tokyo Machi-sanpo" and "Try walking for 10 minutes", plus a search for what lies around each course, are included. An English version is available.

The viewer for the Digital Twin Realisation Project led by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Digital Services. Tokyo's buildings and streets are reproduced in 3D in cyberspace, and live river camera footage, real-time Toei bus data, and open data from metropolitan bureaus can be overlaid on the 3D city model. Alongside 3D city models of the special wards and the Tama area, it carries underground models of Shinjuku Station East and Tokyo Station. Three-dimensional point cloud data for the ward area (DSM, 0.25 m grid, microtopography renderings and four more, seven types in all) is free for secondary use for any purpose.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's official map for finding shelters and evacuation areas across the city. Alongside names and locations, it shows each shelter's opening status and crowding level during a disaster using five-step icons. Pages are available in several languages.

The prefecture's integrated map site for viewing Kanagawa's map information online. It holds thematic maps across many fields — prefectural facilities, projected inundation areas, location maps of privately owned forests covered by the regional forest plan. Urban planning information is shown too, though for the exact land-use designations the site directs you to each city or town.

The walking-road information pages within "Kenko Niigata 21", the health promotion portal of the Niigata Prefectural Government's Health and Welfare Department, introducing walking courses across the prefecture.

The prefecture's GIS site, publishing map information to which Toyama Prefecture holds the copyright. Three prefectural offices — lifelong learning and cultural properties, nature conservation, and environmental preservation — share the same map information, displayed over GSI base tiles.

The walking map on "Toyama Health Lab", the Toyama Prefectural Government's health promotion portal, introducing walking courses both indoors and outdoors.

A real-time river information system run by the River Division of the Ishikawa Prefectural Government Public Works Department. Water levels, rainfall, dam figures, weather, and landslide information are shown both as an overview map and as tables, with alerts issued when hourly or cumulative rainfall, or flood-risk water levels, are exceeded.

The digital map on Ishikawa Prefecture's official tourism site, run by the Ishikawa Prefecture Tourism League. Sightseeing spots, food, and accommodation across the prefecture can be browsed on the map and filtered by interest or means of travel.

A comprehensive river and erosion-control information system run by the Fukui Prefectural Government Public Works Department, providing a landslide hazard zone management system, flood hazard information, flood hazard maps, and landslide hazard maps on a map.

The WebGIS operated by Yamanashi Prefecture. It offers many layers — landform classification maps, borehole logs with ground and soil-test data, index maps, address search, and landmark search for police stations, public facilities, fire stations and railway stations. Smartphone and lightweight versions are available.

The map content on Yamanashi Prefecture's official tourism information site, run by the Yamanashi Tourism Organization. Tourism information can be explored with an overview map of the prefecture. The same site also publishes walking maps such as a guide to Yamanashi's castles and residences, and features on strolling and walking.

The integrated GIS run by the Planning and Promotion Department of the Nagano Prefectural Government. Bureaus inside the prefectural office share map information while also publishing it to residents online, covering mountain-disaster risk districts, steep-slope collapse risk points, designated landslide zones, erosion-control designated land, evacuation facilities, and forest-related information. Features include split-screen display, layer transparency, route search, KML export, and GPS location and address or facility search on the smartphone version.

A collection of walking courses compiled by the Health and Welfare Department of the Nagano Prefectural Government from 270 routes recommended by the prefecture's 64 municipalities, arranged by region and by municipality. Each course is classed as flat, slightly undulating, or undulating, with regional pages for Saku, Josho, Suwa and others.

A prefecture-wide integrated map site publishing Gifu's administrative and regional information online through maps and imagery. It falls under the prefecture's Information Systems Division, with operation and maintenance by the Gifu Prefectural Construction Research Center, and is used jointly by the prefecture and its municipalities. Layers across many fields, such as landslide hazard zones, can be displayed. Published maps may be copied and adapted provided the source is credited as "(c) Gifu Prefecture".

The map view of the landslide information portal published by Gifu Prefecture, where designated landslide hazard zones, special hazard zones, and other risk points can be checked on a map.

A page on which the Health Promotion Division of the Gifu Prefectural Government gathers entry points to walking courses created by the prefecture's municipalities — bridging to their courses rather than building its own.

The resident-facing public GIS within Shizuoka Prefecture's integrated geographic information system, which comprises an internal GIS and a public one. In service since 1 April 2011 as "Everyone's Hazard Map", it carries road ledgers, urban planning maps, landslide hazard zone maps and much more, under a policy of opening as much of it as data as possible.

An integrated GIS in which Aichi Prefecture places its location-related geographic information on an electronic map for residents and businesses. Layers are grouped under headings such as living and safety, learning and leisure, and prefectural administration, and can be combined freely into your own map. It holds landslide hazard zones, storm-surge inundation projections, tsunami hazard zones, and flood history maps, and also publishes a red relief image map.

A service in which Mie Prefecture publishes location-related information over base maps. GIS was introduced in fiscal 2002, the service has run as Mie Click Maps since fiscal 2013, and it was renewed in fiscal 2019. Multiple maps are available through a map gallery, and open data can be downloaded from the data catalogue. The map information is provided under CC BY 4.0.

Walking maps published by "Mie no Rekishi Kaido", Mie Prefecture's cultural site, carrying course maps for walking the province's historical highways.

A disaster information map system published by Shiga Prefecture. The system includes a GIS data download page, from which data can be taken out in shapefile format.

An integrated GIS in which Kyoto Prefecture and every municipality within it publish their map information together through a single system, in service since 1 February 2008. Alongside shelter, AED, and emergency medical maps, it carries a wide range of location data including World Cultural Heritage sites and bear sightings. On smartphones and tablets, GPS centres the search for facilities on where you stand. Desktop, mobile, and smartphone versions are provided.

A system in which Nara Prefecture publishes disaster risk information such as landslide hazard zones on a map (formerly the landslide disaster prevention information system), managed by the erosion control and disaster prevention section of the prefectural land management department.

The prefecture's integrated map system publishing the geographic information Wakayama Prefecture holds. It includes 3D point cloud data and a 3D web viewer, and since 1 March 2023 point cloud data from airborne laser surveying covering roughly 65% of the prefecture's area has been released as open data. Layers such as privately owned forest areas can also be viewed.

An inter-municipal integrated GIS launched in 2026 through cooperation between Tottori Prefecture and 13 municipalities within it. It carries data across many fields at once: tourism, events, childcare support, a bear sighting map, cultural properties, disaster preparedness, crime and accidents, public facilities, medical facilities, environment, and forests.

A system in which Tottori Prefecture provides regional and administrative information online through maps. Alongside public facilities and municipal offices, hospitals and waste treatment facilities can also be found.

A web GIS for searching and browsing administrative map information from Shimane Prefecture and its municipalities. Built as the prefecture's integrated GIS, it gathers map information from across the prefectural government — welfare, disaster preparedness, agriculture and forestry — and can display it over base maps or aerial photographs. Residents can also contribute map information of their own. The underlying topographic and road network data is published on Shimane data eye.

A prefecture-wide integrated GIS built by Okayama Prefecture and in service since April 2002. It publishes disaster information (shelters, suitable helipad sites, rainfall and water-level or tide gauges), seismic intensity maps, liquefaction risk maps, tsunami inundation projections, projected inundation areas, landslide hazard zones, land use, ground data, irrigation ponds, cultural properties, and EV charging facilities. An "Okayama Original Map" feature lets you build your own map over aerial photographs or base maps.

A portal run by the Erosion Control Division of the Hiroshima Prefectural Government that provides, on a map, landslide risk locations together with the hazard zones and special hazard zones designated under the Sediment Disaster Prevention Act.

A portal on which Yamaguchi Prefecture maps the landslide hazard zones and special landslide hazard zones it has designated on the basis of survey. Evacuation sites and facilities used by people needing assistance are shown alongside them.

A system in which Yamaguchi Prefecture provides rainfall, water level, and landslide warning information on a map, together with rain gauges, water-level gauges, dams, simplified water-level gauges, and river surveillance cameras.

The comprehensive portal for maps published by Tokushima Prefecture. It offers a range of maps in one stop and can display several of them stacked together. Locations such as emergency power equipment for use during disasters are included.

An integrated map system published by Kagawa Prefecture. It offers layers for roads, disaster preparedness (inundation, landslides, seismic intensity maps, liquefaction risk projections), the Embankment Regulation Act, and municipal boundaries, and can use OpenStreetMap as a backdrop.

An information map on sediment disasters published by the Public Works Department of the Ehime Prefectural Government, letting you check on a map where landslide risk lies.

The disaster mapping published by Kochi Prefecture. It carries flood and landslide disaster maps, projected inundation areas for designated rivers, landslide hazard and special hazard zones, mountain-disaster risk districts, and designated erosion-control, landslide, and steep-slope areas — along with a three-dimensional hazard map.

A system through which Fukuoka Prefecture presents the varied information it holds on an online map for residents. Two base maps — Google Maps and the national digital base map — can be switched between. Thematic maps include prefectural institutions and prefectural facilities.

A site on which Saga Prefecture publishes its disaster and emergency information online through maps. The prefecture also runs a separate river system, "Suibo-kun", for water-level gauges and advance traffic restrictions.

The river and erosion-control information system run by Nagasaki Prefecture. It provides rainfall, river level, and landslide information, dam data, flood risk distribution maps, and real-time camera images on a map, with a smartphone version also published.

A service launched on 1 April 2024 that brings disaster and tourism information onto a single map. Data held by the prefecture, municipalities, and private operators is displayed together, and it is operated jointly by Kumamoto Prefecture and its municipalities (21 of them in fiscal 2025). It follows the platform standards recommended nationally and exchanges data through APIs.

A system through which Oita Prefecture publishes online the maps showing the locations of landslide hazard zones and related areas.

Overlay open data on GSI maps, aerial photos, geological maps, and 3D terrain visualizations.

A map showing the landslide hazard zones, special hazard zones, and landslide risk locations within Kagoshima Prefecture. The prefecture also publishes rainfall, water level, and weather information, along with the snake-curve diagrams that set the criteria for issuing landslide warnings.

A site on which Okinawa Prefecture publishes regional and administrative information online through maps, covering the locations of administrative institutions, prefectural housing, prefectural urban parks, municipal information, and tsunami inundation projections. GIS data download became available in fiscal 2020, and on 8 March 2023 a policy on using geospatial information within the system was adopted. A prefectural GIS open data catalogue is also provided.

The city's map service bringing together urban planning, roads, disaster information (shelters and evacuation areas), outdoor advertising, and district plans. It merged the previously separate urban planning service and the city disaster map, relaunching on 29 June 2018.

A portal through which Hanamaki City publishes urban planning, roads, sewerage, hazard maps, public facilities, and the locations of childcare support facilities online.

A site on which Sendai City provides facility information and disaster-related information on an electronic map. The city separately publishes an urban planning information service, and releases its land-number maps as open data in shapefile format.

A digital tourism map created by Koriyama City, built around high-quality 360-degree panoramic footage and video shot by drone so that the feel of each place comes through.

A service on which Saitama City publishes public facilities, daily life, urban planning, and landslide hazard maps. Past flood history can also be checked by clicking on the map.

Chiba City's integrated GIS for publishing administrative map information accessibly. The city separately runs a map information system, in service since 1 April 2018, publishing road categories under the Building Standards Act, the certified road network, residence promotion areas under the location optimisation plan, regulated housing-development areas, and public control points.

A portal providing the urban planning that concerns Chiyoda City on an online map. The whole ward can be shown at once, or the display switched layer by layer. Since December 2025 it has also published GIS-based road ledger plans.

A system letting users search Chuo City's urban planning information such as land-use zoning. Land boundary maps, road ledger plans, public control points, and cadastral survey histories can also be checked.

A service providing Minato City's urban planning information on a map. Clicking a point brings up its details, including land readjustment and urban redevelopment projects. The ward separately gathers barrier-free and hazard maps under a "find by map" page.

A system on which Shinjuku City publishes layers such as road ledger plans, urban planning information including land-use zoning, and townscape planning information. It is viewable from smartphones and mobile phones too.

Bunkyo City's search system for urban planning information, with topographic maps, road network maps, and railway network maps, viewable from smartphones and mobile phones.

The system through which Taito City publishes urban planning and other information on an online map. It covers ward facilities and parks, urban planning information such as land-use zoning, floor-area ratios and height districts, road administrators, route numbers and certified road widths, road categories under the Building Standards Act, and the AEDs available to the public within the ward.

Sumida City's map providing urban planning and road information through GIS. The ward also publishes GIS data in shapefile format for urban planning such as zoning, development permission areas, landscape planning zones, ward housing, designated road maps, flood history for roads and parks, and buried cultural property information.

The public GIS through which Koto City publishes the ward's map information online.

A service on which Shinagawa City publishes administrative and regulatory information online through maps and imagery, relaunched on 20 January 2021. Address search brings up information for a given plot at once, and zoning designation maps and road ledger plans are available. It can also generate your own guide map.

Meguro City's published map information service, spanning many themes: district maps, designated road maps, current-condition road ledger plans, development permission areas, landscape formation standards, locations where narrow-road widening has been completed, barrier-free maps, and urban planning facility maps. It works from desktop and smartphone alike.

The system through which Ota City publishes administrative information on an online map. Urban planning information such as land-use zoning and map information on road categories under the Building Standards Act are available, with desktop and dedicated smartphone versions.

A service in which Setagaya City uses GIS to present public facilities, urban planning information, and sightseeing spots on an electronic map, adapting its display for smartphones and tablets. The ward separately publishes over thirty GIS datasets as open data — public facilities, AEDs, cultural properties and more — downloadable as Esri Shapefile, CSV, or KML, with GeoJSON and REST APIs.

The system through which Shibuya City publishes administrative information on an online map. Alongside urban planning information in GIS form, it publishes road ledger plans, ward passage plans, route maps, land boundary determinations, and road area confirmations. The ward also advances open data publication through SHIBUYA OPEN DATA.

A site on which Nakano City publishes administrative and community information accessibly on maps — road categories under the Building Standards Act, parks, public toilets, cycling, published land prices, urban planning and more. The map information is free to download and use as open data.

The electronic map service Suginami City officially operates, handling digital map data and ground elevation survey data. The ward has run both an internal integrated GIS and a public GIS for residents; from fiscal 2026 it begins operating a single unified GIS combining the two.

The system through which Toshima City lets users check the ward's varied information on a map using GIS — public facilities, childcare facilities, nearby play areas, parks, emergency medical institutions, community cat activity, and ground survey data such as borehole logs. The ward's use of GIS has been recognised as a leading example of statistical utilisation.

The system through which Kita City of Tokyo provides the ward's map information online. The ward separately publishes land-use zoning search and urban planning maps on the web.

The system through which Arakawa City publishes regional and administrative information on an online map. The ward also issues "Guide Map Arakawa", marking public facilities and government offices on a 1:8,000 map alongside the ward's history, outline, and transport routes.

A system letting users find facility locations on an electronic map in Itabashi City. Clicking an icon brings up the facility's information and a link to its website. Part of what is published here is also offered as open data in CSV form.

Walking maps compiled by Itabashi City from a cultural and tourism perspective. The ward also issues a tourism guide map.

The system through which Nerima City publishes information useful in daily life — ward facilities, roads, parks — on a map. Categories span ward offices, health and welfare, hospitals and AEDs, environment and cleaning, transport, disaster preparedness, children, schools, culture and learning, community, parks and sports, farm plots, urban planning, road networks, and landscape zones. It was relaunched on 3 December 2024 with a new URL.

A service on which Adachi City publishes administrative and regulatory information online using maps and imagery, managed and operated by the ward's information systems division.

A service through which Katsushika City provides online the ward map information it has built with its GIS. Land-use zoning, building coverage ratios, and floor-area ratios can be looked up.

A service through which Edogawa City provides the ward's map information online, usable from smartphones. The ward separately runs a designated road information service for urban planning and the Building Standards Act, and publishes map data as open data.

The collective name for five systems through which Yokohama City publishes regional and administrative information on maps. The core system, i-Mappy, publishes urban planning decisions such as land-use zoning together with restrictions under the Building Standards Act. Study began in fiscal 2000, publication followed in fiscal 2002, and coverage has expanded since.

Kawasaki City's public GIS for residents, presenting public facilities, tourism, welfare, and disaster information accessibly on maps. Layers include land-use zoning and regulations, flood hazard maps, road and waterway ledgers, public control point networks, and a geological map collection.

Sagamihara City's public GIS for viewing and printing the city's map information online. Urban planning information such as land-use zones and planned urban roads can be checked from the urban planning designation maps, and several layers can be printed together.

Walking course maps compiled by the Health and Social Welfare Bureau of Yokohama City, ranging in character from a route along the old Tokaido to forest trails and waterside walks.

A GIS Niigata City publishes for residents, visitors, and businesses. Public facilities, disaster information, roadside land values, and urban planning can be checked on the map, with search by address or facility name and measurement of distance and area. The city offers its GIS data as open data under CC BY 2.1 Japan and publishes 1:2,500 topographic map data.

Matsumoto City's public GIS. GPS on a smartphone or tablet brings up the map around where you stand, with facility and route search nearby. The city separately produces walking maps for 35 districts under its "citizens walking" campaign, noting local features such as wells, wayside shrines, and historic sites.

An integrated GIS gathering the geographic information Shizuoka City holds — locations of public facilities, designated urban planning and disaster areas, and tourism and welfare facilities. It carries twenty categories including public facility locations, hazard maps, and neighbourhood association areas. Published on 31 January 2025, its geographic information is offered as open data usable without formality.

The map site through which Hamamatsu City publishes its urban planning map, road maps (route certification, current-condition plans, designated roads), and land-number maps. Water and sewer pipe information has since been added.

Nagoya City's GIS publishing urban planning information online through maps and imagery. Alongside land-use zones, height control districts, and fire-prevention districts, it carries urban planning base maps, photo maps, aerial photographs from 1955 to 2005, and earthquake risk assessment maps.

A service letting users view and print urban planning and townscape information for Kyoto City on a map. It entered service on 18 March 2026, taking over from the city's former urban planning information search portal.

Osaka City's map information site, providing the city's map information — urban planning among it — online.

A site on which Sakai City publishes regional and administrative information online through maps. The city also releases map data at information level 2500 as the product of public surveying under the Survey Act.

The system through which Kobe City publishes its administrative information on maps, covering evacuation sites, hazard maps, AEDs, gathering places for older residents, and elementary school districts. Urban planning information such as land-use zones and planned roads and parks can also be searched here.

Okayama City's guide to the map information it publishes online, from which the city's maps — urban planning among them — can be reached.

The integrated GIS Hiroshima City introduced for residents, letting them obtain public facility, urban planning, and disaster information efficiently online. It has been in service since 1 October 2012.

A regional information portal built on a GIS created jointly by five local governments — Kitakyushu, Nogata, Yukuhashi, Kawara, and Kanda. It went live on 22 October 2013, and Kurate joined in fiscal 2016, bringing the total to six. Since fiscal 2019, base maps, topographic maps, and urban planning summary maps have been provided free of charge.

The map site through which Fukuoka City publishes its map information online.

A service letting users view Isahaya City's administrative information such as road ledger maps, together with public facilities, on a map. Topographic maps, Google Maps, or aerial photographs can be chosen as the backdrop.

A service letting users view Kumamoto City's administrative information — urban planning maps, route network maps and the like — along with public facilities on a map. Topographic maps, Google Maps, and aerial photographs can be chosen as the backdrop, and Street View is available.

Cross-search government statistics. The first stop for "numerical evidence" in your inquiry report.

An entry to the background and disclosures of base statistics such as the National Census.

Visualizes population, industry, tourism, and more by prefecture / municipality with maps and graphs. Strong for forming "why?" questions about regional differences.

A catalog to find ministerial open data at the "dataset level".

A primary information source from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, covering the official statistics on food, agriculture, and fisheries. Crop-by-crop output, shipments, and self-sufficiency are available as maps, tables, and CSV — directly supporting local-industry inquiry.

Official Forestry Agency statistics covering national / private forest area, forest resources, and mountain-village areas. Combined with MAFF statistics, gives a full picture of forests, timber, and mountain-village economy.

Japan's window for GBIF, the international framework for sharing biodiversity information. Publishes distribution and specimen data from Japanese museums and research institutions globally. Connects local nature observation to the same-species data worldwide.

Japan's node of the global open geographic database — editable maps built by community contributors.

Free media repository — images, audio, video, and documents with verified licenses for reuse.

An official dashboard jointly built by the Cabinet Office, the Digital Agency, and the Cabinet Secretariat that exposes about 1,000 indicators at the prefecture and municipality level. Indicators span population, economy, social security, education, living, social infrastructure, and local public finance — and can be viewed on a map, compared across regions, plotted as two-indicator relationships, or trended against four indicators side by side. Functions as a single entry point to Japan's regional differences that pairs well with e-Stat and RESAS.

Old maps, classics, books, magazines. Direct access to primary sources.

A national integrated platform, with the National Diet Library at its core, that cross-searches digital materials of museums, libraries, archives, and universities. Themed "Galleries" are also rich.

For materials not in the Digital Collections, search "holdings" and head to a library.

A "how to research" guide by theme from the NDL. Bibliographies, field-specific guides, and reference lists are abundant — usable as a starting point for teachers researching materials for inquiry lessons.

Browse Japan's public records as primary sources. A basis for institutional and political history.

Full-text search of newspaper articles from Meiji to early Showa. Trace public opinion, events, and social conditions in modern history.

An official archive that traces the history of broadcasting. From programs, chronologies, and themes, build an entry to background understanding and primary sources (footage).

Footage that recorded society of the time as a primary source. Read it including the perspective of reporting (what is shown, what is not).

Ideal for practicing reading images as primary sources.

Catch the "flow of history" by themed exhibitions, then descend into primary sources.

Form questions from visual materials such as photographs and ukiyo-e.

An entry that broadens from individuals to social structure and the era's background.

View historical materials as "objects to think with".

Ideal as a first contact point with history.

A public archive holding records of Okinawa from the Ryūkyū Kingdom through the US administration and post-reversion periods. Easy to pair with US NARA holdings on Japan, making it a strong primary-source entry point for modern Okinawan history.

A prefectural archive that comprehensively handles Kyoto's old documents, historical maps, administrative records, and publications. A "place-rooted primary-source" starting point for regional history and cultural-heritage research.

The U.S. national archives. Publishes over 200 million digitised pages, including not only U.S. primary records but also documents on Occupation-era Japan and the U.S. military — vital for Japanese history research. Use the dedicated catalogue to search.

The national library of the UK. Holds a world-class collection including manuscripts, maps, and codices, and publishes many digitised materials. Strong as a primary-source entry point for world history, cartographic history, and bibliography.

A public cross-search portal centred on the National Library of Australia, covering AU / NZ records, newspapers, images, and maps. Rich in colonial, Pacific-War, and Indigenous-related primary sources.

Run by the National Library of New Zealand, this portal cross-searches cultural materials from NZ museums, archives, and libraries. Also handles Māori culture, settler history, and war-related materials.

A pioneering project that digitises and freely publishes out-of-copyright books worldwide. Over 70,000 classics and landmark works available in full text. Useful for confirming originals when using scholarly translations.

Cross-search of four national museums, two research institutes, and Sannomaru Shozokan.

Official database of nationally designated cultural properties — historical sites, buildings, crafts, and performing arts.

Local history digital platform covering 188 institutions, 1.11 million catalog records, and 300,000 content items.

Cross-search digital archives of cultural institutions across the EU.

Browse printed works, manuscripts, scores, and maps from the French National Library — includes a kids' corner.

The largest online library of Hispanic literature and culture in Spanish-speaking history.

Classical works including The Tale of Genji, Essays in Idleness, and Tales of Ise, released for elementary–high school education.

National treasure — the oldest surviving illustrated handscroll in Japan. Suzumushi, Yugiri, Minori chapters.

National treasure — part of the Owari Tokugawa family collection, remounted as 15 handscrolls in 2020.

High-resolution images of the Tale of Genji Illustrated Scroll from the NDL digital archive.

Japanese folktales from across the country, in audio narration and text.

Okinawan folktales recorded from 1973 by the Okinawa Prefectural Museum, in the Shima-kutuba dialect.

25 audio recordings in Saru Ainu dialect by speaker Ueda Toshi, with PDFs, MP3s, and picture books.

Japan's national Ainu museum and symbolic space for indigenous Ainu culture and coexistence.

Database of the classic anime series 'Manga Nihon Mukashibanashi' — Japanese folktales in animation.

Confirm laws and ordinances as primary information. Effective dates and revision history are crucial.

Trace "who said what, on what basis".

From solicitation of opinions → results → laws and notifications. Trace the flow of policy formation.

Over 230 million biodiversity observation records worldwide. Citizen science platform linked to GBIF.

Official statistics run by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), covering global agricultural production, food security, land use, and forests. Commodity-by-commodity long-run time series let you compare food and farming across the world.

The annual Human Development Index (HDI) database published by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), with related indicators. Lets you compare "well-being" internationally beyond income alone.

The UN Refugee Agency's central database of official statistics on refugees, IDPs, and stateless persons worldwide. An international baseline for handling refugee issues with numbers rather than emotion.

An international public platform integrating over 2.3 billion species-distribution and specimen records provided by museums and research institutions worldwide. Used alongside the Japan node (JBIF), it lets you verify species distributions on a global scale.

The official Red List of threatened species worldwide, run by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Centralises assessment categories, distributions, and threat factors per species — the international standard for conservation inquiry.

The official NHK for School hub for teachers. Reverse-look up programs, worksheets, lesson plans, and case studies by subject, grade, and unit. The standard go-to for new teachers who need materials that connect directly to tomorrow's lesson.

A friendly Japanese-history encyclopedia readable from elementary up. Clear explanations of figures, eras, and events. A vocabulary foothold new teachers can use right away as the opening reading or prompt material for a lesson.

An education-oriented hub that organizes "how to use the GSI Map in lessons and inquiry". Lesson plans, practical examples, and downloadable materials are gathered together — a direct fit for experienced teachers reworking their instruction in Geography (General) and inquiry learning.

The Ministry of Education's portal gathering classroom practice with 1:1 devices. Ideas are organized by subject and scene so new teachers can picture the first step of ICT use concretely.

A textbook-aligned ICT teaching-materials library jointly operated by Yamakawa Shuppansha (Japanese history / world history) and Ninomiya Shoten (geography). Videos, slides, worksheets, and statistical materials are organised by subject and unit — a go-to teaching hub for social-studies teachers who need to quickly supply "the one extra resource" a daily lesson is missing.

A group of free teacher-facing educational journals from Teikoku-Shoin delivering lesson-research examples, latest scholarship, and practice reports across geography, history, and civics. The family includes the education magazine "Kizahashi", the elementary-school "Children and Maps", the junior-high "Shakaika no Shiori", and the high-school "ChiReKo" — particularly strong support for geography teachers' materials research.

The Library of Congress's teacher-facing page on using primary sources. Publishes primary materials for history, social studies, and literature together with questioning examples and lesson procedures. Useful both as source material for new teachers and as a reference model for experienced teachers designing inquiry-based lessons.

Integrated portal for school broadcast programs, web content, and archives.

NHK's history delivery program: concise 10-min history topics for active inquiry.

A community-based group led by old-road researcher Taro Miyata, centred on field surveys, guided walks, lectures, and conservation around old roads in the Tama Hills and beyond. It is a strong model for turning terrain, tradition, and archaeological remains into local fieldwork.

A civic group that keeps running walks and lectures around Kamakura old roads near Machida. Its documented walks connect local heritage, safety, and community learning, making it useful for teachers designing off-campus local-history inquiry.

A local council using Edo-period roads through Yanai for community building. Its maintenance work, guide signs, guidebook, and walking activities show how residents can care for and teach from old roads.

The official site for the Japan Heritage route connecting the Bantan region through ore-transport roads. Lectures, guides, and field events show how several municipalities can treat a historic route as a shared learning resource.

Official samples showing how the same map data changes appearance when only the style file is swapped. Six variants, including a road-emphasis map, a railway-emphasis map, and a hiragana map designed for younger pupils. Japanese.

An introductory deck that explains what a web map is made of, one concept per slide. A good place to first grasp how tiles, styles, data and servers relate.

Three contrasting styles built from the same map data: high-contrast black and white, relief with natural vegetation colour, and a watercolour treatment. It shows how far appearance can shift with purpose.