Japan and the world map
Wednesday March 5, 2008
I like looking at the map of the world. I like thinking about the countries I’ve never been to and dream of visiting someday. The first time I came to North America, I was surprised to see that Japan is on the far right side of the map. It felt very strange. Japan is always located at the center of the map that I grew up with . It is probably common to place one’s own country in the center of a world map. It was interesting to realize that the world can be seen in so many different ways. What is map of the world like in your country?
Japanese Translation
Japanese Translation
Comments
I also have a similar experience. When I went to China. I saw a world map. Like you say. China was on center in the world map. Now I live in Canada. I’ll check location of Canada in the world map tomorrow.
Here in Germany and on all maps in Europe, a worldmap is centered on the meridian.
One could say our solution is actually the only right one, cause the meridian is the same for all today.
But of course it is really annoying, if your own country is on the right end of the map, like Japan is on our world maps.
Here in Czech republic, it’s same like in Germany (well nothing strange since these two countries are neighbours
) But I saw one map, where Czech rep. was in the center.. it was on the elementary school, but we all hated it becouse we weren’t used to it, that Czech R. was in the center, so orientation on it was a bit difficult to us (and when you consider that we were in 2. – 3. class 
) …
well, my map is always witha poland in the center :O)
Hello.
In France, it is like in Germany too. Japan is always at the right side of the map.
I looked at your map and it felt strange to see my country placed at the far left! Now I can imagine what you felt !
Hi, I’m from Finland
And, as Germany, Czech republic and France before me, we use the meridian as the middle of the map. I’d most likely get disoriented if I ever tried understanding any other type of map
Hi Namiko, I born and grew in Hong Kong, and I share the same map in our school like yours.
I’ve heard that in Australia they have “upside down” maps with south at the top. Click the link (I assume it will appear as my name) to see a page about them.
I’m in Australia and I’ve never seen a world map “upside down”. Most of our maps have either Africa or the Mid-Pacific in the centre.
In Hungary it’s the same.
I live in The Netherlands and the world map looks like this:
Dutch worldmap (Wereldkaart)
The Greenwich line (which is the line that seperates the timezones, it’s GMT/UTC). I think the reason is that Holland focuses on other countries. That’s also why in Holland we learn English, German and French as second languages whilst Dutch is hour mother language.
I live in the UK so obviously the UK is in the centre. But every site you go on GMT is seen as 0 hours, So I guess the UK is the middle of the world?
I have always dreamed of going to Japan but I have already been to Colorado in North America.
I have also always found it funny how close Japan and America are in comparison to the maps where Japan is on the far right and America is on the far left.
wow.
On the japanese map england is place on the far left
It’s true that the contrey your in will always be centre of that map!
its odd though, dont you think?
on the maps here england is always the center
i wonder..
you know that in england we says its GMT:+00
is like japan, do they say there GMT: 00 and that england are GMT:-0900?
thanks for listening!
x
There is a massive world my map in my school in Florida, USA and Japan is on the far right and the USA is on the far left. Whoever drew it must have just randomly picked a point. Or maybe it is the dateline which I have no idea where on the world map is.
In Sweden UK is in the center of the map, like most EU countries.
I live in the US, but most of the time we’re off to side, with the Atlantic in the middle. I think it’s because of the time line or something.
It’d be crazy to see a map where Asia/the Pacific was in the center!
“It’s true that the contrey[sic] your[sic] in will always be centre of that map!
its[sic] odd though, dont[sic] you think?”
It’s not odd at all. It’s perfectly understandable that a cartographer would place their own nation in the centre of the map they are creating and that people would select a local map to publish. It’s about ego for one thing and orientation for another. For many people, their own country is, conceptually, the centre of their world.
“on the maps here england is always the center”
On traditional Ortelian maps in Europe, including Britain, Europe will tend to be in the centre, not Britain. It’s interesting that people from various European countries each stated their own nation as being placed in the centre of local maps. I’m fairly sure the same Ortelian map is used all over Europe. Ortelius was Belgian. We all perceive our own nation as central.
But on other projections, such as the Peter’s projection (which shows all nations to scale, rather than squashing the southern continents to make Europe and North America look bigger than they are and therefore more important) Africa tends to take a more dominant position in the centre.
“i wonder..
you know that in england we says its GMT:+00
is like japan, do they say there GMT: 00 and that england are GMT:-0900?”
No. GMT stands for Greenwich Mean Time. Greenwich is a geographical location… in London. It would be utterly nonsensical for anyone on any other time zone to say they were on GMT:+00
I am in Japan. I assure you, they are GMT +9, not GMT: 00.
It’s not surprising that a country would center the map on itself. This makes sense as maps are usually used within context. IE. “You are HERE” All the countries in relation to you surround you.
The EU is no different… except that since the Meridian is conveniently located within its bounds, it’s easy to center the maps to a common line all over Europe (which in many ways is like one big country)
Living in Japan for the time being I’ve noticed that about half of the maps focus on Japan while the other half are on the Prime Meridean. World maps in America are generally either centered on the latter or they only display North and South America.
we use the european map, europe in the center, america on the left and japan on the right.
Does anyone know how I can buy a map where Asia is in the center? The only thing is, I’d like it to be in English…
I live in Austraia, and i have never seen an upside down map of the world as mentioned above. The maps in Australia are generally like the Japan centred maps. This may be because there is only 1 hour difference and it is actually Australian centred.
I don’t think UK should be considered the “centre of the world” because the Meridian is there. Its just the time, how does time, a human perception, determine the centre of the world?
Hi,
I’m from Denmark and it is the same as Germany -as many other countries in Europe xD
i like maps
Namiko, thanks for your question. It was a doubt that I liked see globally answered. Kiss from Portugal (centered on the meridian).
Hi Namiko..
I’m Portuguese and here maps are displayed either showing only Portugal or only Europe, being these always centered according to the Greenwich meridian….
kinda interesting to see these differences in such things like maps ^^
where is china on the world map.
in relation to the uk question…since when has there been a place called jumba mamba?
I believe great britain is in the middle of most maps because the former dominance of the british empire over the world, and the substantial amount of exploration, and consequently maps produced by the united kingdom. This is probably why countries stuck with that map, because it was the most advanced of the time?
Here in Mexico we share the same map as in the USA and Canada since we are neighbors
Hi Namiko Konitiva,,
There a pakistani Tallal and your student in japanese language i learn japanese but some confution anyways i have seen the map but the map is not wright why? its 12 year old kid Tallal Adnan Shaikh…………
Hi, i’m from Israel and our world map is the same as the USA one. strangely however USA placed itself at the left side of the map. i think this was done to make it look like it is away from Russia, that is placed at the negative side. at the Japanese map you can see how close the two countries actually are.
World maps usually have the Americas on the left because the Greenwich or “Prime” Meridian–that is, longitude zero degrees–is set to run through a line on the floor of the Royal Naval Observatory at Greenwich, in London. The British were the first to develop a naval chronometer accurate enough to determine longitude within a nautical mile (one minute of arc or 1/60 of a degree along any meridian, or along the Equator, if the Earth was a perfect sphere.) For awhile other nations ran their prime meridians through their own capitals, but soon enough they all started using Greenwich so they could all use British charts.
The problem with putting Japan at the center of a world map is that you must either cut the Americas in half or repeat them on the east and west margins to have them whole. Greenwich is close to the best centerline for Mercator projections which show the outlines of all the continents whole without repeating very much. The other centerline would be the International Date Line, which except for a jink or two is 180 degrees from Greenwich, east or west.