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Of course, Local and Maps Japan are designed to work with Japanese language, but even if you don't know Japanese, I'm sure you can appreciate why we developed it with some particulars in mind for Japanese users. Many Japanese live and work around train stations, for example, and refer to neighborhoods defined by their proximity to them. So we made sure they can search for businesses easily and refer to location by station names. After all, no one wants to walk 10 miles from a station, just to grab a $10 lunch!
Google Local Japanese:
[local.google.co.jp...]
Google Maps Japan:
[maps.google.co.jp...]
I was just fiddling around with the maps and it's quite good. I can see my house! One thing people need in Japan is a map. Aside from main thoroughfares streets don't have names posted at all. In order to tell people how to get somewhere you have to explain landmarks and draw a map. I'm forever using these programs to figure out where things are.
The quality of the maps seems just as good as any of the other map sites out there. Google is actually a bit late to the party on this one.
One cool feature I stumbled upon by accident was that Google Maps Japan accepts and recognizes input in romaji. In other words, you can type your desired location in English and it will find it for you. (Type in something like "Osakajo Koen" and it takes you to Osaka Castle Park.) This is a great feature for people like me who are too lazy to switch their IME on. ;)
In time this is another area that Google and the other search engines will clearly come to dominate.
