Type a place name. Mappu returns the MapCode you can punch straight into your car's nav system — no more wrestling with long Japanese addresses.
Block-and-lot addressing, kanji input, and tiny dashboard keyboards make destination entry painfully slow. MapCodes were designed exactly for this — Mappu just makes them easy to find.
Type a landmark, restaurant, station, hotel — in English, romaji, or Japanese. Mappu finds it.
Mappu returns the precise MapCode for that location, plus a phone number you can call to confirm.
Enter the code on your car's MapCode screen — every major Japanese nav supports it. Done.
Search any landmark, address, or station in English, romaji, or Japanese. Autocomplete surfaces results as you type, prioritizing places near your current map view so the right answer is always at the top.
Create folders for each destination — Tokyo, Kyoto, Hokkaido — and save places straight into them. Your favorites are always two taps away, even offline.
Switch to satellite for a real-world look at your destination, or tilt into 3D for a bird's-eye perspective before you arrive. Tokyo Tower from above hits differently.
Search any spot in Japan in English, romaji, or Japanese — restaurants, hotels, stations, attractions.
Long-press any spot on the map — a beach, a trailhead, a friend's house — and Mappu gives you its MapCode instantly.
Tap hotels, restaurants, temples, and hundreds of other points of interest directly on the map — Mappu instantly shows the MapCode for whatever you touch.
Save the spots you keep returning to — your hotel, a favorite onsen, that ramen place — and reach them in two taps.
For restaurants and hotels with a listed number, dial straight from the result to confirm a reservation.
Tuned for both — readable in bright daylight and easy on the eyes during night drives.
Save a spot on your iPhone and it appears on your iPad automatically. Mappu keeps your favorites in sync across all your Apple devices via iCloud.
Switch to satellite or hybrid view to scout terrain before you arrive, or tilt into 3D mode for a bird's-eye perspective of your destination.
Mappu remembers your last 30 searches so you can pull up that ryokan or restaurant again without typing a single character.
The MapCode system was developed by Denso and is supported by virtually every car navigation system sold in Japan — Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, and the big rental fleets all read it.
Each code is a short number — usually 6 to 10 digits — with an optional 1–2 digit precision suffix after a *. Type it into the "MapCode" entry screen and the nav drops a pin within meters of where you want to go.
Almost all of them — the MapCode system is the de-facto standard in Japan. If your rental car has a Japanese nav screen, look for the マップコード or "MapCode" entry option. If your car was made for the export market it may not have it; in that case you can revert back to the phone number Mappu shows for the location, which most Japanese navs accept as a destination.
The high-precision codes (the digits after the *) place you within roughly 3 meters of the destination — typically the front entrance for a venue.
Yes, for searching new places. Once you've saved a place as a favorite its MapCode is saved on the device, so you can pull it up offline.
Search autocomplete works best when the map is already centered near your destination. There are two easy ways to do this. First, you can pan and zoom the map to the area you're looking for, then search — autocomplete will prioritize nearby results. Alternatively, type the name of the city (for example, "Kyoto" or "Sapporo"), tap it in the results to let the map zoom in to that city center, and then search for your specific destination — autocomplete will find it much more reliably within that focused area.
Yes, the app is free to download. It's supported by unobtrusive ads, which keep the lights on without selling your data.
Download Mappu free and turn your next destination into a number you can type in seconds.