From our other sites
The story
The UN adopted a resolution encouraging countries to move away from the Mercator projection, long the standard for world maps, with Japan voting in favor and the United States voting against, according to the Asahi Shimbun. While the Mercator projection is valued for accurately preserving direction, it’s also known for distorting size, making countries and regions at higher latitudes look far larger than they actually are. On 5ch, the resolution sparked lively debate over how maps look, how big countries really are, and how easy the proposed alternative projections are to read.
“Stop Using Mercator-Projection World Maps”: UN Resolution Adopted, Japan Among the Backers — Asahi Shimbun
September 5, 2026, 7:48 AM (Paid article)
New York — Kyota Tanaka
Source: asahi.com / Read the original article here
What people said
Funny thing is, it was Christians who first taught people the earth is round, lol
It was the schools of Pythagoras and Aristotle who first said the earth is round — long before Jesus was even born
I get wanting to see it with your own eyes.
Wait, isn't the earth flat?
As long as the Sea of Japan doesn't change, I don't care.
Heard that Russia shrinks, Germany and Japan end up the same size, the US and China come out 25 times the size of Japan, and the USSR 50 times.
More important that direction stays accurate, right?
Stick with Mercator.
These days you don't need Mercator to keep from getting lost, lol
What are you even gonna do with knowing directions, lol
Kill off the Gregorian calendar too while you're at it, garbage calendar.
While we're at it, Japan should scrap the era-name system too.
It's useless and converting everything to the Western calendar is a pain.
No, Japan should scrap the Western calendar too.
Every country should use its own era-naming and calendar system rooted in its own culture.
And on top of that, a universal Earth calendar and a single Earth-wide era should be established.
By me.
It's nice how it neatly divides that whole era of incompetence into "Heisei" and "Reiwa," isn't it.
North Korea's northern tip is actually closer to the equator than Sapporo is.
At this stage it's more convenient to let them play the part of an independent country, so acting like a developed nation is tolerated.
Once direct orders come down, though, they have to fall in line.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HRYi5QRXgAIqeVn.jpg
I don't think a globe that big even exists
You can display it in 2D like Google Earth and still get that globe-like feel
Wait… isn't Mercator just fine? Equal Earth is hard to look at.
The continents end up looking ugly-shaped, kind of hate that.
Russia's tiny.
So are Alaska, Canada, and the US.
Yeah, exactly.
https://www.petitmonte.com/images/uploads/nihon_saidaihanto1.png
Thailand is unreal.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
The Mercator projection preserves angles and directions accurately, but its drawback is that it exaggerates area at higher latitudes — Greenland, for instance, appears nearly 14 times larger than its true size — which has long made countries near the equator look smaller than they really are. Because this projection has served as the standard in school textbooks and mapping apps for so long, some have argued that this “warped visual impression” has shaped how people perceive the relative size of nations. In the thread, opinions split between those who prioritize accurate area and those who favor Mercator for its clarity on direction, while alternatives like the Equal Earth and Mollweide projections drew mixed reactions, with some calling their shapes unnatural and hard to read. It’s worth noting, since it’s easily misunderstood, that the UN resolution doesn’t mandate how any country must use maps — it merely encourages adoption in settings like education.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “‘Stop Using Mercator-Projection World Maps’: UN Resolution Adopted, Japan Among the Backers, US Opposed.”
Leave a Reply