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For junction I know of 交差点 but is that only for traffic junctions or can it be used generally, say, in a mall when the path splits 3 ways or more in front of you.

shoryuu
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1 Answers1

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I think it would be called a 分岐点｛ぶんきてん｝. In addition to physical path splits, it's often used to indicate turning points abstractly (like a turning point in your life etc).

EDIT: As @Flaw mentions, this word may not be the best to describe the situation in casual spoken language. A more casual way you could express this is 分かれ{わかれ}道{みち}. However, even though one could describe using both of those words how to navigate to a specific location via an intersection/a path split (分岐点/分かれ道を右に行く), it might be better to be more detailed. For example to express turning right at the first intersection in a キ shaped intersection (キ-shaped probably isn't a real word), you might say:

まっすぐに行って、最初の十字路を右に行く

Here's an excerpt from research done by the Japan Tourism Agency: enter image description here

And here are some other usages I found: enter image description here

enter image description here

Ringil
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    Would 分岐点 in usual daily conversation be natural? Like say when giving or receiving directions to a place. I ask because it's a research article, and I don't know if the same word is used in a colloquial setting – Flaw Jan 03 '20 at 17:18
  • Mighty thanks Ringil! That certainly seems more like it. Unlike Kousaten which is just fills Google Images with road junctions. The research article is interesting too! – shoryuu Jan 04 '20 at 13:14
  • @Flaw Good point! I'll add a bit about that. – Ringil Jan 04 '20 at 22:30