Development of OpenStreetMap Data in Japan

The development of volunteered geographic information (VGI) in Japan, especially the use of OpenStreetMap (OSM), became active after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. In addition, crisis mapping for disaster response and OSM activities have been under constant development in Japan since 2011. For the first time, the long-term evolution of OSM activities in the region and the number of contributors (mappers) was analyzed over the last 12 years. To clarify the regional differences, the coverage of some characteristic OSM features in each prefecture was clarified using OSM historical dump data and the ohsome API. The number of mappers increased significantly in response to several disaster events that occurred in Japan and has been increasing daily since 2016. Since 2016, OSM activities have been conducted outside major cities, and the development of residential road data has progressed. However, the creation of building data and the updating of road widths of major roads have not progressed significantly due to limited data maintenance.