As a big L5R fan Ican tell you that the problems with Rokugan are many. There are many inconsistence between the canon material and the actual maps, which themselves are inconsistent across editions. By the way I wouldn't say it is supposed to be Japan exactly - more oriental fantasy with a heavy Japanese inspired focus. That's how I have always treated the setting anyway.

But there are issues:

  • Rokugan is supposed to have roughly the same climate as central japan
  • To keep it isolated it is basically ringed by mountains except that the bit usually missing on the central western border was never explained properly and has received inconsistent plot treatment over the years
  • The Mantis Isles are described as very tropical - jungles, big snakes, tigers, etc
  • It turns all into heavy jungle to the south-west (with the shadowlands in between), eventually meeting the Ivory Kingdoms which is basically not-india
  • Running along the coast directly north it is all steppe and mountain
  • And everything else northish/north west/westish is huge swathes of desert dominated by the not-persian city of Medinaat-al-Salaam


A lot of it gets a pass though because (divine) MAGIC. The whole desert area (the burning sands) was caused by actual wrath of a god stuff. But the mantis islands have always been a bit odd what with the whole tropical theme they have.

As far as fixing things goes though - it's probably not worth trying to. A lot of the issues come from the writing not matching the maps. I mean even the clan borders are horribly unreliable - especially the 3e depiction of them as there is supposed to be vast tracts of unexplored wilderness or "unaligned" lands in between clan territories.