Research Guides: *Japanese Studies: Getting Started

Key Resources in Japanese

Asahi shinbun kurosu sāchi This link opens in a new window
A newspaper database for Asahi shinbun containing 12 million articles (as of Aug. 2010) published from 1879 to present. Also includes articles from the weekly magazines Aera as well as Shūkan Asahi, from the annual new-word dictionary Chiezō, Asahi shinbun jinbutsu dētabēsu, and Aashi shinbun rekishi shashin ākaibu.
Yomidas Rekishikan This link opens in a new window
Database of Yomiuri Shimbun, the largest newspaper publisher in Japan. Contains in-depth information about Japan through access to more than 10 million articles carried by The Yomiuri Shimbun over the past 135 years. Contents include photographs of Yomiuri Shimbun pages produced between 1874 and 1989; texts of Yomiuri Shimbun articles published since 1986.; texts of Daily Yomiuri articles published since 1989.

Maisaku 每日新聞社のデータベース, 每索
Access to the online full-text database of Mainichi shinbun (1872 (Meiji 5)- ). The database also includes Mainichi daily news (June 2008- ), Shūkan Ekonomisuto (October 1989- ), the public opinion poll conducted by Mainichi Shinbunsha (1945- ), Mainichi yoron chōsa, and the company history "’Mainichi’ no 3-seiki."
Japan Knowledge Lib.
Includes dictionaries; the Nihon daihyakka zensho (Nipponica), a full text 30 vol. encyclopedia;a biographical dictionary; the JK Who’s Who; the Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan; a news database (NNA); a full-text journal: Shūkan ekonomisuto; Edo-Tōkyō kasane chizu (map); full-text of books in the Tōyō bunko series; chronologies; a database of video (TV, news) recordings from 1908 to 2005; database of dissertations from the humanities departments of six universities in Japan, and more

大宅壮一文庫 (WebOya) This link opens in a new window
WebOya indexes periodicals held by the Ōya Sōichi bunko, a private library in Tokyo with a comprehensive collection of popular journals reflecting popular culture in Japan. Provides basic and advanced Boolean searching, as well as classified searches by personal names, occupation, subject, and keyword. Coverage: Late Meiji to the present.

Nihon Rekishi Chimei Taikei(日本歴史地名大系)(Japanese)
This Japanese place name database includes over 200 000 entries and allows for both title keyword and full-text searching.

Complete Database for Japanese Magazines and Periodicals from the Meiji Era to the Present This link opens in a new window
Index to periodical articles published in Japanese, including those in former Japanese colonies, and including local periodicals not present in many other indexes. Coverage is from 1868 onwards. Merges data from various composite periodical indexes by Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan.

Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō / 臺灣日日新報
Taiwan nichinichi shinpo, daily newspaper, was published from 1898 to 1944 in Japanese along with Chinese text from 1905 to 1911. It is an official newspaper published by the Government-General of Taiwan yet one of the dispensable resources to know the condition of Taiwan for these years. The database provides both Chinese and Japanese interface.

The Japan Times Archives.
The Japan Times is the only English newspaper database in Japan that daily reported on Japanese people, places, and news from the world since 1897. The Japan Times Archives database itself covers only the Japan Times, from March 1897 to 2013.

Meiji Japan This link opens in a new window
Edward Sylvester Morse Papers were given to the Peabody Museum in 1926 and consist of 99 boxes of personal and professional papers including diaries, correspondence, research files, drawings, lecture notes, publications, scrapbooks and manuscripts. Collection digitized in its entirety. Papers (ca. 1858-1925, 40 cubic feet), document the numerous and valuable contributions made by Morse to the areas of malacology, zoology, ethnology, archaeology and art history.
Bibliography of Asian Studies This link opens in a new window
The on-line version of the Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) contains records on all subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Religion, Society, Spirituality, and Reform This link opens in a new window
A multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the nineteenth century; will be comprised of numerous collections to be released over many years, including a variety of material types--monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, statistics, and more--in one cross-searchable location.