The , or GSI, is the national institution responsible for

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

and mapping the national land of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The former name of the organization from 1949 until March 2010 was Geographical Survey Institute; despite the rename, it retains the same initials. It is an extraordinary organ of the

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism The , abbreviated MLIT, is a ministry of the Japanese government.国土交通省設置法 ...

. Its main offices are situated in

Tsukuba is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 244,528 in 108,669 households and a population density of 862 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 20.3%. The total ar ...

City of

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

. It also runs a museum, situated in Tsukuba, the Science Museum of Map and Survey.

Earthquake Precursor Prediction Research

Stationary MT monitoring systems have been installed in

since April 1996, providing a continuous recording of MT signals at the Mizusawa Geodetic Observatory and the Esashi Station of the GSI. These stations measure fluctuations in the earth's electromagnetic field that correspond with seismic activity. The raw geophysical time-series data from these monitoring stations is freely available to the scientific community, enabling further study of the interaction between EM events and earthquake activity. The MT time series data from the GSIJ earthquake monitoring stations is available online at http://vldb.gsi.go.jp/sokuchi/geomag/menu_03/mt_data.html The Authority is represented on the national

Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction The Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction (CCEP) (Japanese: 地震予知連絡会, ''Jishin Yochi Renraku-kai'') in Japan was founded in April 1969,

.Organizations with ties to CCEP
CCEP, accessed 2011-03-19

Japanese water height reference point

The is installed in a small building in front of the

National Diet Building The is the building where both houses of the National Diet, National Diet of Japan meet. It is located at Nagatachō, Tokyo, Nagatachō 1-chome 7–1, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Sessions of the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives ta ...

in Nagatacho

Chiyoda, Tokyo is a special ward located in central Tokyo, Japan. It is known as Chiyoda City in English.Profile< ...

. The building is called the . Construction of the building started on August 1890 and it was completed on December 24, 1891. It serves as a reference point for elevations in Japan (

vertical datum In geodesy, surveying, hydrography and navigation, vertical datum or altimetric datum, is a reference coordinate surface used for vertical positions, such as the elevations of Earth-bound features (terrain, bathymetry, water level, and built stru ...

). The building cannot be entered, but there is a stone base with a description outside. Elevations of Japan are determined with reference to the mean sea level of

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous a ...

(elevation 0 m). This is called or Tokyo Peil (TP for short, "Tokyo level"), where the word Peil comes from the Dutch language. The stone base monument of the datum has a crystal scale with a 0 which indicates above the mean sea level of

since October 21, 2011. 測量法施行令第2条第2項 Since it is difficult to refer to the altitude in Tokyo for remote islands, 37 islands have their own zero point. The heights of Okinawa z. B. are measured from the middle water level of Nakagusuku Bay ( 中城湾 , Nakagususku-wan ) and that of Miyake from the Ako Bay.

The GSI in fiction

The GSI featured in the novel '' Norwegian Wood'' by

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...

as the intended workplace of his roommate, "stormtrooper". At the time the novel was set, in the late sixties, the GSI was situated in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geospatial Information Authority Of Japan National mapping agencies Extraordinary organs (Japan) Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Maps of Japan Geographic data and information organizations Surveying organizations

Earthquake Precursor Prediction Research

Japanese water height reference point

The GSI in fiction

See also

References

External links