Japanese Studies: E-Books and Documents
Guidance on finding e-resources for doing research on Japanese history, literature and society
E-Books - General
- HathiTrustHathiTrust is a digital repository for the nation's great research libraries that brings together the immense collections of its partner institutions. It was initially conceived as a collaboration of the thirteen universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the University of California system, and the University of Virginia to establish a repository for those universities to archive and share their digitized collections, and quickly expanded to include additional partners with fast growing treasure of digitized collections.
- KinoDenKinoDen is the Japanese ebook platform provided by Kinokuniya. Contact Kathi Matsuura, Japanese Studies Librarian, to request additional titles to our holdings.
- Maruzen eBook libraryMaruzen eBook Library is another ebook platform to which we have access. Please contact Kathi Matsuura, Japanese Studies Librarian, to add additional titles to our collection.
- ERDB-JP (Electronic Resources Database-Japan)A data sharing service for open access e-resources published in Japan. The registered data is created through the collaboration of universities, published and knowledge-base vendors through the National Institute of Informatics.
E-Books and Documents - Premodern
- Gunsho ruiju 群書類従(正・続・続々)The Gunsho ruijū is a monumental collection of Japanese literary and historical texts. It is not just a multi-volume compendium of primary sources but a whole series of such compendia collated, edited, and published over more than a century and covering texts from the 9th to the 19th century.
- Shintei zōho, Kokushi taikei 新訂增補・國史大系Shintei zōho Kokushi taikei (新訂増補国史大系) published by Yoshikawa Kōbunkan (1998-2001) includes fundamental pre-modern works of Japanese history. The online edition provides a total of 66 volumes (60 volumes plus supplements) in PDF including Kojiki, Nihonshoki, Azuma Kagami, Tokugawa Jikki, Honchō Seiki, Nihon Kiryaku, Hyakuren Shō, Nihon Isshi, Zokushi Gushō, Ritsu, Ryō no gige, Ryō no shuge, Engishiki, Ruijū Sandaikaku.
E-Books and Documents - Literature
- Dazai Osamu Manuscripts Online 太宰治 自筆資料集This database contains 3417 pages of Dazai Osamu's (1909-1948) writing, across 22 manuscripts and drafts, plus fragments of draft text and notes, all held by the Museum of Modern Japanese Literature. It also includes 21 additional materials, including journals, notebooks, textbooks from his years as a student.
- Collection of Handwritten Materials by Japanese Modern Literary Writers 虛子記念文学館所蔵, 近代文学作家自筆資料集This database allows you to browse the handwritten materials of modern literary writers that are held at Kyoshi Memorial Museum. It contains about 480 materials by more than 60 writers, such as Takahama Kyoshi, Natsume Soseki, Mori Ogai, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Masaoka Shiki, Sato Haruo, and NagatsukaTakashi.
- Collection of Seishi Yokomizo 二松学舎大学所蔵, 横溝正史旧蔵資料Comprehensive database of material concerning Seishi Yokomizo (1902-1981), one of Japan's leading postwar mystery novelists, including handwritten materials. Materials are from the collection at Nishogakusha University, and consists of manuscripts, drafts, scenarios for books made into films, and more.
- Harimaze Nenpu: A Chronicle of his life in Clippings 江戸川乱歩 『貼雑年譜』The 'Harimaze Nenpu' is a scrapbook containing materials collected by Edogawa Rampo. The database contains more than 2,600 original documents, including Rampo's own notes, diaries, manuscripts, letters from writers and publishers, movie and theater pamphlets, press sheets, and clippings from domestic and foreign newspapers and magazines from 1894-1964.
Digitized Documents - Colonial and War-related
- Yuho Collection Online 友邦文庫The Yuho Collection Online provides valuable materials by the Government-General of Korea during the Japanese Colonial Era.
- Gotō Shinpei bunsho 後藤新平文書Documents from the archive of Gotō Shinpei (1857-1929), a prominent Japanese politician and Cabinet Minister in Taisho and Early Showa Period. He was active in Japan's colonial administration, serving as Commissioner for Civil Affairs of Taiwan and the first president of the Manchurian Railway Company, and held positions as Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mayor of Tokyo, and President of the Imperial Capital Reconstruction Agency.
- Niniroku Jiken Tōkyō Rikugun gunpō kaigiroku 二・二六事件東京陸軍軍法会議録Tokyo Army Military Proceedings on February 26 Incident
- Records of War Crime Tribunals: Mainly related to Tokyo Trials 法務省旧蔵東京裁判・戦争裁判関係資料集Includes over 360 volumes of compilations and related materials, investigation documents, collected materials on war crimes trial material transferred from the former Ministry of Justice to the National Archives from the 1950’s to the 1970’s.
Digitized Documents - Economic and Business History
- Zenkoku shōkō kaigisho kankei shiryō 全国商工会議所関係資料Database includes 3 content types: (1) documents related to the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (1868-1965); (2) documents related to the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in East Asia (1903-1945) including Korea, Taiwan, Sakhalin, Manchuria, China Kannai and other overseas areas; and (3) documents related to the Chamber of Commerce regional offices in Japan and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (1887-1945).
- Business Archives Online 企業史料統合データベース(BAO)Business Archive Online provides access to 215,000 records on more than 14,000 companies between early Meiji and late Showa (1877-1990). Providing comprehensive coverage of the economic activities in modern Japan. Allows universal searches of 215,000 Financial Reports Part I & II and Prospectuses from over 14,000 companies. Restructuring and name changes of firms are noted in a section. Equipped with a unique dictionary function that allows batch retrieval of company information.
- Documents related to Japanese Agriculture 全国農業関係資料Contains rare agricultural documents from the prewar and mid-war periods. If users wish to access sections published after the war for each prefecture, please contact the Japanese Studies Librarian, Kathi Matsuura.
- Sports Industry History Database スポーツ産業史データベースModern sports is intimately tied to the various industries that surround it. Published from 1948-1981, Nihon Undogu Shinpo was Japan's first sporting goods trade journal. The database contains 900 issues of the journal with 100,000 headings
- Yamaichi Shōken eigyō hokokusho 山一證券営業報告書 : 附山一證券の百年Yamaichi Securities business reports (with shareholder registry) from 1937 to 1943, and "One Hundred Years of Yamaichi Securities" (written by Tadao Arai, Professor of Economics at Konan University). It also includes a business report from 1943, when Yamaichi Securities merged with Koike Securities. Useful for studies of wartime finance.
- Yasuda Ginkō eigyō hōkokusho 安田銀行営業報告書 : 附安田銀行六十年史Yasuda Bank Business Reports from 1923 to 1943, and "The Sixty-Year History of Yasuda Bank" published by Yasuda Bank. Useful for the study of wartime finance.
Digitized Documents - Political and Legal History
- Collection of Materials Related to Social and Energy Policy 有沢広巳旧蔵社会政策・エネルギー政策関係資料集.Contains a diverse range of primary policy-related resources belonging to economist Hiromi Arisawa (1896 - 1988), who played a significant role in the formulation of postwar Japanese economic policy. Arisawa was involved in social policy continuously from the early postwar recovery years, right through the oil shocks of the 1970s, to after the end of the country’s era of high growth. The database is primarily material from social policy panels, allowing readers to track developments in labor policy and social security from the 1950s to 1980s.
- Fusae Ichikawa Papers 市川房枝資料 1905-1946Fusae Ichikawa (1893-1981) led the women's suffrage movement in Japan before World War II, and after the war, she served five terms as a member of the House of Councilors for twenty-five years, leaving an unparalleled mark on the women's movement. This is an online version of a vast collection of original documents that were preserved by Ichikawa during the war and left at the Fusae Ichikawa Memorial Association Center for Women and Politics.
- Ōhira Masayoshi kankei bunsho 大平正芳関係文書Documents left by Masayoshi Ohira (1910-1980), 68th and 69th Prime Minister of Japan. Composed of a varied selection of primary source material ranging from diaries and notebooks written by Ohira, to correspondence, official ministry documents, Diet speeches, election material, plus transcripts of interviews with key political and financial officials.
- Records of Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (CIRO) 内調資料The Cabinet Office was established in the Prime Minister's Office in 1952 as the Prime Minister's Secretariat Research Office, and in 1957 it became the Cabinet Research Office of the Cabinet Secretariat (currently the Cabinet Information Research Office). Although it is widely known as Japan's representative intelligence agency, due to its high degree of secrecy, official documents are rarely made public. This material is from the former collection of Minro Shigaki (1922-2020), who was a founding member in 1952 and later served as chief of the Cabinet Research Office. It includes reports on nuclear policy research conducted by the Internal Affairs Bureau, materials from research groups such as the Policy Science Research (PSR), and records of CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) training.
- Yabe Teiji kankei bunsho 矢部貞治関係文書Material from the former archives of political scientist Teiji Yabe (1902-67). Resources focus on the turbulent Showa years from pre-WWII to the 1960s and contain around 6000 documents related to the Showa Kenkyukai think-tank, Navy Ministry and naval academy, Constitutional Investigation Committee, administrative council (Gyosei Shingikai), public security investigation committee (Koan Shinsa Iinkai), council for the electoral system, and committee charged with preparations for the Meiji centenary.
- Ōkita Saburō kankei bunsho 大来佐武郎関係文書The database contains more than 200 books including unpublished diaries, notebooks, and memos of Saburo Okita (1914-1993), a postwar economist and economic bureaucrat in Japan. He worked on important postwar economic policies, such as the New Long-Term Economic Plan (1957) and the National Income Doublement Plan (1960). He became Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Ohira Cabinet Period in 1979, and played an active role in diplomacy in the event of the oil crisis and the recovery in Japan-China relations. After that, he served as President of the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (1973-77) and Chairman of the External Economic Cooperation Council (1988-92).
- Last Updated: Oct 16, 2024 3:52 PM
- URL: https://guides.library.stanford.edu/JapaneseStudies
- Print Page