Talk:List of Japanese map symbols

Japanese map symbol creation project
Most of the symbols aren't in Unicode I think but they are dead easy to make with a simple paint program. I'm going to try to make them at some point, anyone care to help? I suggest making 200x200 PNG graphics in black and white. Any comments, suggestions? I am also going to make the symbols for "ioriten" and "kunojiten" on the Japanese typographic symbols page in the same manner. --DannyWilde 09:04, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

文 (bun) & schools
According to this page,, the 文 bun symbol is used for high schools, and 小, 中, and 大, for elementary, junior high, and universities, respectively. Is one standard more common than the other? Dforest 06:34, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
 * The standard we should use is the one of the GSI (Geographical Survey Institute), which is the link at the bottom of the page. This is the official standard in Japan. The Livedoor map is an online map, so my guess is that they substituted more readily available symbols from common character sets. By the way, the symbol for a forestry station is correctly described as the seal script version of the kanji for tree, 木, rather than the Cyrillic letter. I have a GSI pamphlet somewhere which explains it. --DannyWilde 08:30, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Sounds reasonable. I seem to vaguely remember that seal script, perhaps in the Henshall kanji guide. Dforest 09:52, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Symbol size
The symbols seem to be coming out both small and large. This is using MS Windows and Firefox. What does anyone else get? Is the new markup an improvement or not? On Linux, I can't see several of the symbols at all. --DannyWilde 08:30, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I believe the problem is that the symbols are being taken from more than one font, according to where the browser can find them; different fonts contain differently sized characters. Not sure if there's a fix, other than to replace all the characters with bitmaps, which is probably undesirable for other reasons. Haeleth 12:00, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Post office no collection
I can't find 〒 being used for "post office no collection" on the reference above or on any of the three on the page at present. Also, I don't know what "no collection" means - is it to do with 集配局 (shuuhaikyoku)? As far as I know, that actually means a distribution and delivery centre. I checked this once a month or two ago, not sure if my memory is correct but anyway as far as I remember post offices without this sign do not distribute mail, they do collect it though and send it to the shuuhaikyoku. --DannyWilde 15:48, 15 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I noticed it first at Mapion, and then at several other sites, see this Google:  However, it appears that the other sites (Townpage, Excite, JR, ANA) are using Mapion's symbols, so it may or may not be a standard.  Though most of their symbols are the same as GSI's, one exception being fire station.

For what it's worth, the Mapion site gives this:


 * 〶 郵便局(集配)
 * 〒 郵便局(無集配)

This site explains the difference pretty well:
 * 集配郵便局(Collection and delivery Post Office)は、窓口業務（郵便・貯金・保険）の他に、受持郵便局区内のポストからの取り集めと配達業務を行う郵便局. 無集配郵便局(Non-collection and delivery Post Office)は、窓口業務のみを行う郵便局. また、無集配郵便局は特に指定された局以外は、料金別納・後納・低料第３種・内容証明などの郵便引き受けや、私書箱交付などは行わない. 集配郵便局は約4,900局、無集配郵便局は約15,100局.

However, it is a personal site--the Postal Savin' Home Page (!) so the names may not be official translations.
 * --Dforest 02:53, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
 * As I thought it is the difference between a shuuhaikyoku post office and a normal one. However, describing the other post offices as "no collection" post offices might lead people to think they didn't collect mail at all. Can you think of a better name? --DannyWilde 04:08, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Pictures
Is it really necessary to include pictures of the places the symbols represent? Leon math (talk) 20:04, 10 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I can take or leave the pictures, but would like to suggest we show the map symbols smaller. That would make them closer to the size they are on the map, and so make the page easier to use as a reference. Cxw (talk) 23:04, 3 February 2010 (UTC)