road maps

Planning our next driving trip to Japan. Last time (Feb 2010), we picked up some free road maps (in Japanese) from an expressway service station which were very good and detailed. Now need more up-to-date driving maps, preferably in English. Never liked using Google maps. Could not find any on the internet, does anyone know of any websites ? Looking for maps for Chubu and Chukoku regions?

I think majority of the online maps are outdated, even google map, if you are driving, the GPS is probably the most upto date.

There seems to be such a map.
City Maps 2Go
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ulmon.android.cityma...
https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/city-maps-2go-lite/id408866084?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/city-maps-2go/id327783342?mt=8

If you're comfortable with using Japanese maps, there are plenty available.

The only maps in English that I've come across are on such a large scale as to be of limited use.

The major car rental companies provide English GPS navigation system on their cars, so it classical way to use printed road map these days.

You can obtain a free printed road map at highway express service stations, or can be purchased a fully printed large maps at highway service station book store or any other book stores. But they are printed in Japanese.
I think English printed road map is low on demand.

Finding English map is old fashioned.

By translate apps enough.
http://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/app/yomiwa-offline-translator-diction...

http://youtu.be/mC0-Sq-iHZU

Winter Visitor, yes Japanese maps would be useful online. WHile we don't speak Japanese but nevertheless as I said the detailed maps we got from an expressway service station in 2010 were helpful. This time we need the maps to plan our next trip and somehow we find the classical style road maps easier as all the roads are clearly shown.

I don't know where you're based, but one option which might be good enough for rough initial planning is just to get a large "ordinary" map of Japan, which will have all main roads on it.

I've done this before (concentrating on trains lines rather than roads, but the principle's the same), and have been able to find A2 sized maps of either the whole of Japan or of specific regions. (Nat Geographic do them, for instance. In the UK, your go-to place is Stamfords. I know that they have a limited selection of regional maps which would be little use for actual on-road use, but which might be OK for basic "Is there a road that goes from A to B?" sort of pre-planning).

Hope that helps a little.

Looking for good online road maps in Japanese as above

If Japanese is ok then I recommend the mapple road maps that can be purchased at any bookstore or convenience store. I haven't used one since the advent of the smartphone, but relied on them heavily in the past and they were absolutely great. I recall them costing around 2000-4000 yen for a region or prefecture. These days, however, the easiest for non-Japanese speakers is google maps. I use it pretty much everyday, and despite what some posters have said, I generally find them to be the most up to date and user friendly (depending on the system, "English Navigation" in the rental cars can be quite user UN-friendly for non-Japanese speakers).

Try

Japan Atlas A Bilingual Guide
http://www.amazon.com/Japan-Atlas-Bilingual-Guide-3rd/dp/1568364806/re...

Omni Maps has a bunch of Japan road maps
http://www.omnimap.com/catalog/int/japan2.htm

The Road Atlas Japan is also very good, but this version is dated (2007). I don't know where you can get a later version or if this is even still in print.
http://www.amazon.com/Road-atlas-Japan-Hokkaido-only/dp/4398201041

Thanks guys, I have (still) a copy of the Road Atlas Japan from 2006, it is very good but quite outdated. I responded to Winter Visitor's original post above because I am settling for ONLINE road maps in Japanese (for free). Would have preferred in English but know that won't be possible. Need the updated road maps online to PLAN for our forthcoming trip in junction with the Road Atlas above. Once I arrive Japan I can get more updated road maps from the expressway service stations. So would be helpful if I could get some links to good road maps as I don't know any Japanese.