Historical maps and hand-drawn tourist illustrated maps are difficult to handle with conventional GIS tools due to their distortion, scaling, and rotation. Maplat addresses this through a proprietary coordinate transformation engine built on Japanese-patented technology, achieving high-accuracy bidirectional coordinate transformation between any such map image and modern maps — within 2D space.

10 Years of Maplat: Where We Came From and Where We Stand

• Why conventional GIS tools struggle with historical and illustrated maps
• Real-world use cases (Niigata Kagai Project and others)
• Current state of development and commercialization by Nayuta Inc.

Turning "Misalignment" into a Positive Force

Historical and illustrated maps never align perfectly with modern maps. Rather than treating this as a defect, Maplat embraces it as meaningful information — a reflection of the era, purpose, and culture in which each map was created. By transforming this misalignment into a bidirectional coordinate transformation system within 2D space, Maplat has delivered a practical solution for historical GIS, cultural heritage, and tourism applications. This philosophy is at the heart of Maplat's innovation.

Future Directions and Open Challenges

• Ongoing development including expanded support for vector data
• The exciting yet unsolved challenge of 3D extension — the "misalignment as a feature" approach that works elegantly in 2D breaks down when carried into 3D space, and this remains a fundamental open question
• We would love to hear ideas and insights from the audience on how to move forward

Maplat is still a relatively unknown project, but for those interested in humanities-oriented GIS — history, culture, and tourism — and for anyone who sees potential in embracing the "imperfection" of maps, we hope this talk sparks an inspiring discussion.