This paper reviews major achievements of Japanese historical geography, history of cartography, and historical GIS since 1980. We can obtain fruitful research results in the three realms of historical geography -"real world", "imagined world", and "abstract world" -as defined by H. C. Prince. In "real world", reconstruction of landscapes and regional structure has been a basic subject. Modern historical geography established itself as a key platform to connect the past and the present world.

more »

... re are two major new currents in this field : environmental history and interdisciplinary communication. Geographers, historians and archaeologists increasingly share resources and methodologies in historical geography to carry out interdisciplinary studies. As of 1980, some geographers started to study historical maps in "imagined world", in order to understand the cosmology of people in the past. Since the beginning of the 21st century, research works with historical GIS have well started in "abstract world", which will play a key role to integrate the results of individual research in the humanities and social sciences, including historical geography.