In Asia, Google Street View is available in Bangladesh, Bhutan, British Indian Ocean Territory, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, India, Japan, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. This includes disputed territories in both Israel (Golan Heights and West Bank) and India (Arunachal Pradesh). It is also available for a few select tourist attractions in the People's Republic of China, Iraq, Nepal and Pakistan.
Timeline of introductions
Service in Japan was introduced on August 4, 2008. Japan's coverage was initially concentrated in five areas with a total of 10 camera icons. The service has faced criticisms from bloggers in Japan of cultural insensitivity.
On May 26, 2011, Google announced that, in India, capturing of Street View images in Bangalore, the capital of the state of Karnataka, had started. However, Google Street View was banned from Bangalore on June 20, 2011.
On September 2, 2011, Google has revealed that its Street View feature will be introduced to the country in association with the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
On September 3, 2011, Google started to collaborate with Tourism Malaysia to record Malaysian locations to be featured on its Google Map Street View.
On January 24, 2012, Google Street View was launched in South Korea starting with imagery from the country's capital, Seoul, as well as South Korea's second largest city, Busan.
Google Street View in Jordan was launched in November 2015 which included 43 archaeological sites. On the announcement day, Queen Rania wrote on the announcement and praised tourism enhancing efforts in Jordan.
Since March 2022 a large amount of Street view, taken by Google since November 2021, has been added in Bangladesh. This coverage covers mostly agricultural areas of Dhaka Division, and as of April 2022 it continues to expand every few days.
In July 27, 2022 Google added street view coverage in ten major cities of India and its surroundings, ending thus the 11-year-old ban on Google Street View. The footage is shot from Tech Mahindra and Genesys companies and licensed to Google. There is planning for a rollout of the service in national level, and there are daily additions of Indian roads into the platform.
Areas included
Reference:
In 2016, the Government of India denied Google's request to cover India through Street View photography, citing concerns that military installations or other sensitive areas would be photographed. In 2022, after a change in government policy, Google was permitted to launch in India; its Street View project in the country is a partnership with Genesys and Tech Mahindra. It competes with MapmyIndia. At launch in July 2022, Street View covered 150,000 kms of roads in India; it also formed partnerships with traffic authorities in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, and Agra.
Google Street View Covers most regencies and cities in Sumatra (except Aceh), Java, Lesser Sunda Islands, Borneo, Sulawesi.
In October 2019, Google excluded and removed most of the Street View images of Aceh due to a controversial incident. The Aceh City Government considered suing Google about why the inappropriate image can be easily passed and shown to public. Even so, the government still allows Street View recordings in certain places that are not in roadways. The City Government also reported this incident to Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.
Full Coverage
Landmarks: State History Museum,Gumbez of Manas
For European Russia, see Google Street View in Europe
Full Coverage
Controversy
As in other places, there has been controversy surrounding plans to bring Street View to various Asian countries.
In Israel, there have been concerns that introducing the service could increase the risk of terrorism to which the region is prone.