Legend
- McGill users only
- In-library-use only
- Catalogue record
Sources for Background Information
General information about Japan
Dictionaries
Encyclopedia
Searching the Library Catalogue
Use the basic word(s) anywhere or advanced keyword search in the library catalogue. You can search using words like - Japan, Japan?, histor?, etc.
Search tips
| Truncation symbol: | ? | e.g. Japa? will retrieve catalogue records containing the words Japan, Japanese, etc. |
| Phrase searching: | "___" | e.g. "United Nations" will retrieve catalogue records containing the phrase United Nations |
| Boolean operators: | (), AND, OR, NOT default: AND |
e.g. history AND ( Japan OR "United States") will retrieve catalogue records containing the word history AND either Japan OR the phrase United States |
Core and Additional Databases
- CiNii
CiNii (Scholarly and Academic Information Navigator) is a database service that enables searching of information on academic papers published in academic society journals or university research bulletins, or included in the National Diet Library's Japanese Periodicals Index Database.
- 聞蔵IIビジュアルfor libraries(Kikuzō II bijuaru for libraries)
- Bibliography of Asian Studies, 1971-
- JSTOR
- Project MUSE
- MLA international bibliography
- JAIRO:Japanese Institutional Repositories Online
Selected Resources
Accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
Literature
Online classical Japanese literature sponsored by the University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center and the University of Pittsburgh East Asian Library.
- Aozora 青空文庫
- J-Texts 日本電子図書館
- 電子版霞亭文庫 (Electronic Katei Bunko from the University of Tokyo Library)
- 日本ペンクラブ電子文藝館 (Japan P.E.N. Club Digital Library)
Media: Cinema/TV/Anime/Music/Newspapers/Image
Cinema 映画
- 日本映画データベース
- Midnight eye, the latest and best in Japanese cinema
- Nippon Cinema
- Japan Foundation :Japanese Film Screenings Overseas
- Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 山形国際ドキュメンタリー映画祭
- Kinema Club
Kinema Club is devoted to the study of Japanese moving image media, and is produced through the collaboration of many scholars around the world.
TV テレビ
Anime 漫画
Newspapers 新聞
- Asahi Shinbun 朝日新聞
- Yomiuri Shinbun 読売新聞
- Mainichi Shinbun 毎日新聞
- Nikkei Shinbun 日経新聞
- Doshin 北海道新聞
- Kobe Shinbun 神戸新聞
- Kyoto Shinbun 京都新聞
- The Japan Times online(English)
Visual Resources
- Peace Database 平和データベース
Multimedia database presenting over 12,000 items from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, including text, photographs, film, and sound. - Tokyo: The Meiji and Taisho Eras in Photographs
Database of photographs of Tokyo in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, digitized from publications held by the National Diet Library 国立国会図書館. Allows searching in Japanese or English. Category browsing, as well as an option to search by region using a map. - Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures
Presents portrait photographs of approximately 350 statesmen, government officials, military officers, businessmen, scholars and artists, who had an impact on building modern Japanese society by the National Diet Library 国立国会図書館. - Visual resources for Japan (Duke University)
History
- Handbook to life in medieval and early modern Japan
- The Histrographical Institute the University of Tokyo 東京大学史料編纂所
- National Archives of Japan 国立公文書館
- Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR)
JACAR is a digital database testifying to Japan's historical relations in Asia as well as elsewhere. This site provides access to official documents—dating from the Meiji era through 1945—of the Japanese Cabinet, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Army and Navy. - Japanese Historical Map Collection (University of California, Berkeley)
- Umehara Archaeology Image Database 梅原考古資料画像データベース
Developed by the Toyo Bunko, this database provides images of thousands of artifacts excavated by Umehara Sueji 梅原末治 in the Korean Peninsula in the 1920s and 1930s. - JARDA: Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (University of California)
Traditional Culture
茶道
- Dai Nihon Chado Gakkai (Japan Association of Tea Ceremony)
- Kyoto Chanoyu Museum 京都茶湯美術館
- The Urasenke Tradition of Tea 裏千家今日庵
- The Omotesenke Tradition of Tea 表千家不審菴
Government information
- e-Gov 電子政府
- Proceedings of meetings of the National Diet （国会会議録検索システム）
E-text of the proceedings of meetings of the National Diet since 1947 is available in Japanese. One can search by keyword, name of the speaker, position of the speaker or the name of the group to which the speaker belongs.
Statistics
- Japanese Working Life Profile
- Official Statistics of Japan
- Statistical Materials for Learning about Japan (National Diet Library)
- Gender Statistics Database (National Women’s Education Center)
Economics
Religion
Other resources
- Ajax IME: Web-based Japanese Input Method
- Romanization
- NII Nengo 年号
- Web Japan
- Japanese Culture and Art Online
- JGuide:Stanford Guide to Japan Information Resources
Other library catalogs
- National Diet Library Catalog
- GeNii: Nii scholarly and academic information
NII (National Institute of Informatics)'s academic content portal integrate the services of NACSIS-CAT (Catalog Information Service), NACSIS-IR (Information Retrieval Service), and NACSIS-ELS (Electronic Library Service).
- WINE:Waseda University Library Catalog
- Center for Research Libraries: Online Catalog