As announced here, we had recently integrated new basemaps in Japan in order to improve the map coverage in your country.
We would like to hear your thoughts and comments about this integration but we don’t speak Japanese and even with online automatic translation things are lost in translation.
If you could reply to this post in English and share your feedback with us - we will really appreciate it.
Moreover, you can find answers to many questions from veteran users in the global forums. Our users are very responsive and willing to help!
On the plus side, hundreds of thousands of roads that weren’t there before have been added. On the minus side, major arterial roads, highways etc that had been mapped have been deleted, mashed up, sliced up etc. There is no consistency with road classifications either. As far as a navigation system for getting from A to B, the quality has dropped dramatically, certainly in my area at least. There is a mountain of work for editors to get it back to a usable level, and from my experience of customer service in Japan, I would not push it to a wider audience just yet as you will just end up scarring people off.
The address system also needs localisation. Addresses here are based on blocks, not streets. Like Prefecture>City>Ward>Town>Area>Block>Building or Prefecture>County>Town>Area>Building. National and Prefectural routes, Expressways etc are named and some streets have names too, but they are not used for addressing.
On the plus side as a semi-active Waze mapper, it’s a points bonanza
One other point of note, and this applied before the mass edit, there are a lot of app users who map train lines because they are not shown on the app even though they are mapped as railways in the editor. Showing them on the app would save us the trouble of having to delete them all the time. One Japanese mapper has suggested marking them as boardwalks to avoid this problem.
I’ll respond as a new user (April 2013). I’ve put in a lot of time editing and it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve learned so much about my community that I didn’t notice before. However, after spending so much time and effort and realizing that my contribution is a drop in the bucket, I wondering (with the new acquisition by Google) if it wouldn’t be better if you do a major shift to include the google maps database into the Waze map so that we can get back to the main idea of the Waze app. Social interaction while driving. Contributing live traffic conditions, police, and hazards.
With the availability of quality maps with Google maps, Apple maps, and other Japanese maps, Waze is sorely lacking in the ability to travel anywhere. I have Google or Apple maps running in the background as well as car navigation to get where I want to go. I use Waze to just share traffic info. But then again there are so few users that it often feels like I’m the only one out there.
You aren’t the only one in Japan. I’ve been here for about 2 weeks and have been around a little bit but haven’t seen many wazers and I’m not able to perform map edits yet. I’m still working on map edits back home in Virginia and Kentucky to pass the time. I do think the merger of the map would be a good base start. Once we get it up and rolling, it will progress. I tell all of my military guys to use waze and a bunch of them have started, that is when they drive. I’m hoping to see some more progress soon and hoping I can help out. Thanks. Justin
Thanks for choosing waze in Japan, and I really appreciate it.
Yes, there are still not many users in Japan compared with other countries, like USA. I think that your contribution to spread to military friends is really good idea. please do that
Your idea of merging the map can be nice but not sure if it will happen yet or not…
But good thing is that there is new map editor version and there you can use google street view when you edit maps, please try it out!
Thank you,
Takanori
I am currently in Army (Camp Zama). I have been editing maps for a about a GOOD solid month now. I noticed you mentioned that you were editing American maps to pass the time. Are you working on Japanese maps yet? Is it the whole “North American Map” login vs. the “World Map” login that has you bummed out?
Heck! Or do you even know that there was a difference (NA vs. World)?
Anyways, let me know. I can help you sort the issue out. It took me a couple of days to figure it out.
The map service in Japan is sketchy at best for the English users. But the navigation is very good. You just can’t scroll around on the map and find where you would like to go, due to the lack of labels on roads and landmarks. The reporting functions are quite good. The over all experience is not bad. I would just like to see some app changes. Why can’t you use Google maps? They are very good for English speakers in Japan. I find myself wanting to go back to the Google app. But I like Waze so I deal with it. I pretty much know the areas where I drive. However I always feel like there has to be a better route. I have been in Japan 14 years so getting around is not really a problem.
