Apple Maps Japan 2024: Look Around expansion but no new maps

In 2023 Apple rolled out Look Around expansions in Tokyo, Chiba, Kyoto and Osaka for all roads classified as public in those prefectures. These were the first prefectures that Apple ‘completely mapped’ gradually starting in 2018. Capital city or select city and district additions for Aichi, Hyogo, Gunma, Okayama, Fukuoka prefectures were also added. In February 2024 Apple added Look Around for Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures along with select cities in Ibaraki, Tochigi, Kumamoto prefectures.

These are the largest Look Around expansion in Japan since the August 2020 Look Around #1 release. Redesigned ‘New Maps’ with Apple proprietary cartography seen in America, Europe, Taiwan and Hong Kong remain an elusive goal however, even after six years of image collection. Online discussion about when redesigned Apple Maps are coming to Japan is pointless as most people have no idea how much is actually mapped. Even Apple Maps go to guru Justin O’Beirne listed Japan as a 2023 new maps candidate then wisely removed it. People assume entire prefectures have been mapped when this is not the case, people who have never visited Japan assume it is a small, easy to map island country. It’s not.

Apple’s bumpy Japanese image collection effort
Apple has a simple strategy for image collection in Japan: Cities + Districts = Prefectures. They don’t bother with other classifications (prefectures, villages, towns, etc.), only cities and districts. Apple starts with the capital city in a prefecture then gradually add other cities and districts over several mapping seasons until an entire prefecture is mapped. It’s important to note however that Apple’s image collection effort is limited compared to Google as Apple does not map roads classified as ‘private’ These roads are semi-private/semi-public and quit extensive, and Google maps them.

The Apple Maps Image Collection 2023 schedule for Japan represented a change. The original schedule pulled just as it was due to start then reposted with new dates running three months shorter than the original schedule but with new collection areas covering all unmapped sections of Aichi Prefecture. More importantly: Yamanashi Prefecture was the first prefecture Apple completely mapped, top to bottom, in one season, a new faster paced image collection strategy.

The 2024 image collection schedule will pick up the pace again, completely mapping 4 prefectures: Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Mie. Backpacks will visit major stations, city parks and university campus areas in Saitama City, Chiba City, Kamakura City, Hamamatsu City, Sakai City, Kobe City, Kita-Kyushu City, Kumamoto City.

Be aware that there are curious gaps between when data collection occurs and when it appears in Look Up. Shizuoka for example was completely mapped by December 2022 but Look Around didn’t appear until February 2024 even though most of the Look Around data for the region doesn’t include point of interest (POI) overlays. The same thing is happening with Saitama and Aichi prefectures in 2024, all mapped but no release. Is it quality control or some other reason for the delay?

To explain the situation, I have created (what else?) a map that hopefully shows the piecemeal image collection in easy to understand terms of what’s mapped and what’s not. Highlighting every city and district is way too much detail so I chose color coded prefectures in 3 categories:

Mostly Mapped Prefectures
‘Mostly mapped’ not ‘completely mapped’ because Apple only maps public designated roads (city, district, prefecture, national). In Japan there are lots of publicly used but quasi privately maintained roads designated as ‘private roads‘ that Apple does not map (nearly 40% of all roads in my city), but Google Maps does. This results in significant dead spots in areas ‘completely mapped’ by Apple Maps image collection vans and backpacks. This has huge implications for the quality and usefulness of everything that depends on image collections: new maps, Look Around, AR Walking Directions, Detailed City Experience, etc.
Partially Mapped Prefectures
Major metropolis areas that include surrounding parts of multiple neighboring prefectures: Greater Tokyo (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Ibaraki), Greater Osaka (Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Shiga, Hyogo), Greater Nagoya (Mie). For some reason Apple has not mapped traditional greater area region prefectures like Gifu (Greater Nagoya) and Wakayama (Greater Osaka).
Selectively Mapped Prefectures
Capital cites in Hokkaido, Miyagi, Niigata, Ishikawa, Ehime, Kumamoto prefectures. Capital and select cities or districts in Okayama, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kagawa.

The graphic clearly shows that Apple Maps image collection in Japan has a long way to go.

The 2024 Apple Maps Image Collection scorecard of the 47 Japanese prefectures
13 are completely mapped
2 are partially mapped
10 are selectively mapped
22 remain completely unmapped

The gradual expansion means redesigned proprietary New Maps and the services connected with them, Detailed City Experience, etc., won’t come in 2024, 2025 or even 2026, not unless Apple greatly accelerates their image collection: if Apple maps 4 prefectures a year (the 2024 pace), it will take about 6 years to cover all of Japan, in other words 2030. Those new features cannot happen until Apple image collection vans completely map all of Japan as New Maps is the cornerstone for all other cartography based features.

In short, Apple Maps in Japan are stuck with 3rd rate GeoTechnologies supplied cartography for years to come. Apple Maps in Japan has been, and will remain, the laggard for redesigned maps and associated features. Not that it matters much for iPhone users in Japan: 80% of Japanese iPhone users don’t use Apple Maps. Mind share and market share has long been dominated by Google Maps and Yahoo Japan Maps. That is not going to change.

Updates

2024-03-01
The 2024 image collection schedule has Apple Maps Image Collection vans visiting all of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Mie prefectures. Backpack Image Collection will visit major stations, city parks and university campus areas in Saitama City, Chiba City, Kamakura City, Hamamatsu City, Sakai City, Kobe City, Kita-Kyushu City, Kumamoto City.

2024-02-20
Look Around Japan data uploaded and online for Shizuoka Prefecture (2022), Kofu Prefecture (2023), Kumamoto City (2022/2023), Takasaki City (2022), Utsunomiya City (2023), Otsu City (2023). Still missing 2023 data collected areas for Aichi Prefecture, Saitama Prefecture, Kurashiki City, Marugame City, Matsuyama City, Fukuyama City. These may come later.

2023-12-20
New Look Around Japan backpack data collected in 2023 has uploaded and online.

2023-08-22
Yahoo Japan Maps (part of the SoftBank empire) is using MapKit to implement Look Around with AR Walking Directions in their iOS App, however walking and driving route data is supplied by Zenrin, one of the highest quality map data suppliers in Japan.

2023-05-15
Kumamoto City Look Around has been taken offline, there was a large hole in the central famous Kumamoto Castle area that needed to be fixed. As with the Shizuoka additions, it may take a while before optimizations and the rollout are completed and available.

2023-05-12
Apple is rolling out the Look Around #5 expansion. All of it seems loaded but not fully optimized. Shizuoka expansions are not showing as available, for example, even though Look Around views can be seen by zooming in from adjacent Look Around areas.

2023-04-28
Apple updated existing pre-expansion Look Around areas with 2022 image data, including backpack images of station areas. Re-mapped driven areas appear to be limited to central areas and underground roadways such as the Yamanote Expressway. New features include:

#1 Look Around in-station areas. Main stations now include backpack collected images for station entrance areas (outside the transit gates) and connecting corridors to shopping areas and stations, but no station indoor maps or AR directions. This first appearance of indoor Look Around images in Japan suggests more is coming: the current implementation is hard to use as it does not have the ability to switch between layered above and below ground Look Around views. Lots of backpack image collected underground stations mapped in 2022 have yet to appear.

#2POI Look Around. Look Around areas with Point of Interest (POI) labels as also expanded to most Look Around JP areas incorporating 2022 collected images but is mostly limited to central areas in Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka. Tokyo for example is mostly limited to wards ‘inside’ the Yamanote Line. Look Around #2, #3, #4 (Hiroshima, Niigata, Sapporo, Kanazawa, etc.) also have POI Look Around in central areas. Look Around areas without business POI labels have limited navigation POI labels for major bridges, roads, stations and other important navigation landmarks.

Look Around #1 August 2020 (2019 image collection): Greater Tokyo, Greater Osaka, Greater Nagoya
Look Around #2 January 2021 (2020 image collection): Fukuoka City, Hiroshima City, Nara (Greater Osaka), Takamatsu City
Look Around #3 May 2021 (2020 image collection): Sendai City, Kanazawa City
Look Around #4 May 2022 (2021 image collection): Sapporo City, Niigata City, Shizuoka City, Akashi City
Look Around #5 May 2023 (2022 image collection): Tokyo Metropolis, Chiba Prefecture, Shizuoka Prefecture, Kyoto Prefecture, Osaka Prefecture, Maebashi City, Okayama City, Kita-Kyushu City, ~~Kumamoto City~~ (Kumamoto City in initial rollout but quickly pulled for quality problems and remapped)
Look Around #6 February 2024: Shizuoka Prefecture (2022 image collection), Kofu Prefecture (2023 image collection), Kumamoto City (2022+2023 image collection), Takasaki City (2022 image collection), Utsunomiya City (2023 image collection), Otsu City (2023 image collection)