To realize a direction display having a sense of reality which prevents a user from having a sense of incongruity on a map screen.

The method comprises: generating reference coordinates of a plurality of direction detection reference points Q1 to Q8 on a display frame formed of a prescribed shape selected as the display area of a size smaller than unit rectangular regions C11 to C44 on a map based on map data divided into a plurality of the unit rectangular regions C11 to C44; determining the reference unit rectangular region to which the reference coordinates of the generated direction detection reference points Q1 to Q8 belong on the display frame of forward and backward directions to and from the prescribed direction of the display frame when performing the direction display with respect to the prescribed direction in the display area; reading the names of the adjacent unit rectangular regions adjacent to the prescribed direction when viewed from the reference unit rectangular region out of a hard disk drive 5; and displaying the names of the adjacent unit rectangular regions in the positions matched with the prescribed direction on the map screen G1 when displaying the map screen.

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