This polygon shapefile is an index to 1:50,000 scale maps of Japan, titled '1:50,000 chikeizu -- Gomanbun no ichi chikeizu -- 1:50,000地形圖 -- 五万分一地形圖.' This map series was originally produced by the Japanese Land Survey Department of the General Staff Headquarters in 1888. Stanford University Libraries holds a large collection of Japanese military and imperial maps, referred to as gaihōzu, or "maps of outer lands." These maps were produced starting in the early Meiji (1868-1912) era and the end of World War II by the Land Survey Department of the General Staff Headquarters, the former Japanese Army. The Library is in the process of scanning and making available all of the maps in the collection. To create this index, footprints were generated using the fishnet tool, and metadata were supplied for the digitized paper maps by Stanford University Libraries. After the footprints were created, the shapefile was trimmed and labeled according to the sources.Relief is shown by contours and spot heights with an index to adjoining sheets in margin, however, various issues exist with some of the sheets. Earlier, unnumbered sheets filed by IMW system used on recent sheets. Cultural features and vegetation shown by symbols. This layer provides an index map that can be used to locate individual scanned map sheets.