PIXEL ART × JAPANESE CULTURE
Japan In Pixels
Map Japan, tile by tile.
A top-down pixel art map built in Tiled Map Editor with LimeZu 16×16 tiles, rendered in PixiJS. Zoom from the whole country to a city street — or step inside a building. In development.
◆ In Development — Foundation First
A Pixel Art Map of Japan
Japan In Pixels is a top-down pixel art map of Japan, built tile-by-tile in Tiled Map Editor using LimeZu’s Modern Exteriors + Interiors packs (16×16), rendered in PixiJS on the web.
Maps are authored locally in Tiled, exported as JSON, then uploaded via a Laravel admin panel. The server rewrites tileset paths and stores the map; the browser fetches it and draws it. Click a prefecture to load a region; click a city to zoom to street level; click a building to step inside.
Jerome authors all maps first. Community contributions come in a later phase once the foundation is solid.
…and 27 more
Four Levels. Click Deeper.
You navigate by clicking or zooming from the whole country down to a single building interior.
Japan Overview
All of Japan. Stylized terrain, ocean, prefectures as clickable polygons.
LimeZu Terrain
Regional Map
Kanto, Kansai, Tohoku, Kyushu. Cities as clusters, landmarks, roads, rivers.
LimeZu Exteriors
City Map
Full street-level detail. Buildings, parks, stations, shrines. Animated tiles.
LimeZu Exteriors
Interior
Inside buildings. Pokémon-style separate maps. Convenience stores, shrines, homes.
LimeZu Interiors
Build Phases
Phase 1 — Foundation
Tiled setup. Build japan_overview.json. Prove PixiJS renders one map.
Phase 2 — Pipeline
Laravel admin panel. Map upload with path rewriting. Publish workflow. Tileset registry.
Phase 3 — Navigation
Drill-down works. First regional map (e.g. Kanto). Back button, pan + zoom.
Phase 4–7
First city (Tokyo L3) → Interiors (L4) → All regions + cities → Community contributions.
No user auth until Phase 7. No Mapbox — Tiled JSON + PixiJS only. Plain Blade (no Livewire) for now.
Ten Sites. One Network.
Japan In Pixels is part of the Japanese Culture Empire — a network of sites documenting Japanese culture in English. Below, sister sites you can explore today.
JapaneseMythicalCreatures.com
妖怪・神話
Yokai, Oni, Kitsune — the mythology
JapanCollectorsGuide.com
収集ガイド
Coins, banknotes, watches, models
JapaneseWoodJoints.com
木組み
Traditional joinery and craft preservation
ShrinePuzzle.com
神社パズル
Hanafuda, Go, Shogi, Mahjong
Kohibou.com
珈琲坊
Kissaten — traditional Japanese coffee culture
The725Club.com
725クラブ
SNES / Super Famicom collection tracker
E2Japan.com
E2ジャパン
Japan in the Earth2 metaverse
SpaceshipAdventures.com
宇宙船
Hoshi no Isan — JAXA heritage space visual novel (UE5)
JapanInPixels.com
日本インピクセル
This site. The pixel art map. In development.
Why Pixel Art
Pixel art and Japan share a birthright. The medium that gave the world Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Super Mario was built on Japanese culture. The 16×16 tile and the tatami mat are both systems for seeing space.
Pixel art also has limits — and limits force choices. A 16px torii gate cannot show every detail. It shows what matters. The same logic governs shrine architecture, Japanese packaging design, and the shokunin approach to craft.
JapanInPixels uses the pixel grid not as nostalgia but as a constraint that produces clarity. Click to zoom from the whole country to a city street — or step inside a building.
Watch It Come Together
Development is documented in public. When new maps go live (Tiled → Laravel → PixiJS), you'll see it here first.