Japanese Imperial Land Survey (陸地測量部; 1888 - present) was a Japanese governmental mapping agency established in 1888 to map the home islands. By 1925 the Land Survey had completed a 1: 50000 scale map of the home islands. Then expansionist, the Imperial Japanese were keenly aware that, like railroads, telegraphs, and guns, maps were tools of empire indispensable to governance, surveillance, commerce, and countless other imperial initiatives, the very lifeblood the state. As Japan expanded into Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and elsewhere, imperial cartographers followed closely behind imperial soldiers. Their work was of the highest caliber and incorporated the most modern and sophisticated survey techniques - resulting in mappings that exceeded all previous work in their respective regions for both thoroughness and accuracy. After World War II, the Japanese Imperial Land Survey was folded into civic administration, but still functions as part of the Japanese government.



Out of Stock Maps