Sources and credits

Where the maps, places and timetables come from, and the terms each is used under. A published timetable is a copy taken on one date, so service may have changed since; ride times that are estimated, and counts of weekday trains, are marked as such. Check for service changes before you travel.

Some of this data we change ourselves. We simplify and group the railway and bus lines from Japan’s transport ministry (MLIT), and match names between sources. Ferry routes are the routes and terminals mapped on OpenStreetMap; where a published timetable links two ports that have no mapped route between them, we draw an approximate line. A route on the map does not mean it still runs. These changes are ours.

Where the data comes from

Data we share

The ODbL asks that databases made from OpenStreetMap and used publicly are offered too. These are ours, built from Geofabrik’s Japan extract of OpenStreetMap; the original sources are in the table above. The Popular evidence is shared under CC BY-SA, as Wikivoyage's licence asks.

• Download ferry routes and terminals (ODbL 1.0) · © OpenStreetMap contributors. Extracted from cached Geofabrik regional Japan data, grouped by OSM way ID. Journey durations are mapped values, not verified schedules.
• Download the islands no road reaches (ODbL 1.0), derived from the same data's roads, which keeps estimated drives and walks off the sea.
• Download the ropeways, gondolas and car-free buses (ODbL 1.0), taken from OpenStreetMap through the Overpass API: their mapped lines and stops, both directions of a route as one line, the stations named from the mapped stops.
• Download luggage storage locations (ODbL 1.0) · © OpenStreetMap contributors. Luggage lockers and staffed left-luggage points are extracted from the regional Geofabrik data, deduplicated by OSM ID and matched to nearby stations. Positions, mapped hours and charges may be incomplete; neither current availability nor bag acceptance is guaranteed. Extraction dates are not survey dates. Additional station-level locker facts link to JR Hokkaido and the original JR East station pages in each record. Station coordinates approximate the station, not an individual locker. Operator pages, maps, logos and live inventory are not included in the OSM download. Follow the source links to check exact locations, current terms and availability.
• Download the places database (ODbL 1.0). Photographs have their own licences, shown beside each image. Trips and application code are not part of this download.
• Download station and stop names (ODbL 1.0) · © OpenStreetMap contributors, with Wikidata (CC0) additions.
• Download English railway line and operator names (ODbL 1.0) · Wikidata’s English labels (CC0), with © OpenStreetMap contributors’ name:en on route relations where Wikidata has none. Matched to MLIT’s Japanese line names by operator and name; a line with no English in either stays Japanese.
• Download rail colour records and source relation IDs (ODbL 1.0) · © OpenStreetMap contributors. Operator and line names are matched; conflicting records are omitted. These records are not all operator-verified. Reviewed colour evidence links to operator websites, JR route maps and explicitly labelled Wikipedia sources (© Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0), with check dates and regional sections. Some maps share a colour across several lines. Sections without sourced colours appear grey; a few lines also use grey in the source map. Colours identify lines; no operator logos are reproduced.
• Download Popular evidence and source revisions (CC BY-SA 4.0) · © Wikivoyage contributors, with Wikidata CC0 type and area information. See/Do membership is extracted and matched by Wikidata ID; no guide prose or photographs are copied. Popular is our own estimate, not a review count or a live visitor count.

Walking and driving routes come from a routing database built from Geofabrik’s Japan extract of OpenStreetMap with Valhalla’s standard build, with no map edits of our own. These are its source data and method, as the ODbL asks.

Published timetables

Operator data is filtered to the trip’s service dates, including calendar exceptions, and grouped into stop patterns. Route shapes are simplified and names may be matched across sources. These changes are ours; the providers do not endorse this planner.