abstract

The National Museum of Japanese History (NMJH, popularly known in Japanese as Rekihaku) is a museum on Japanese history located in Sakura, Chiba, Japan. This museum is currently conducting its core research, “Constructing Integrated Studies on Cultural and Research Resources” by developing a comprehensive digital network of Japanese historical resources. This project enables access to data in universities and museums across Japan through interdisciplinary studies in the humanities and sciences using information infrastructure.

The interest in Japan (and Japanese studies) among Faroese scholars, and vice versa, has historically been very limited; still today scientific collaboration in the humanities and social sciences between Faroese and Japanese institutions is a rarity. This paper presents an ethnographic project based on a fieldwork conducted on the Oki Islands, Shimane Prefecture, in Autumn 2015.

Promoting research data service is almost a "Holly Grail" at the University of Michigan Library, while few digital research happens in Michigan Japanese Studies community. I have developed collaborative projects with students to increase the awareness for digital humanities and a hidden collection, Alfred Rodman Hussey Papers which consists of the Japanese Constitution drafts and other documents related to promote the new constitution and the occupation policies of Japan.

The 21st century shows the tendencies of shrinking traditional library funds, fast expanding digital space and especially increasing popularity of online resources. These tendencies are caused by several important reasons enforcing the creators and users to prefer online resources than printed ones. Among them are: they are cheaper (for both sides), they can be accessed from any part of the word, and thus they reach wider audiences, they are green, etc.

Accessing Japanese materials effectively is one of the most important tasks for researchers who conduct their research on Japan. This paper focuses on a case of researchers who conduct their study on Japan in academic institutions outside of Japan. Although researchers may have various opportunities to visit Japan for their research through the support of academic institutions and funding bodies, material collection can be hindered by limited time, high costs and restrictions in access.

I will report in current situation and problems of Japanese resources in Southeast Asia.

Japanese studies in Lithuania are still developing, just as the resources for it. Having insufficient amount of resources in Lithuanian language, VMU Centre for Asian Studies has started few unique projects like website for self-learning the Japanese language (japonukalba.vdu.lt) and online Japanese-Lithuanian dictionary (nihongo.vdu.lt) (both were supported by Japan Foundation) were created by professionals and Japanese language specialists. But other two projects are carried out implementing the users – students of Japanese studies, also from other specialties. These projects are of wider scope and are dedicated to all East Asia.

The objective of the “Project to Build an International Collaborative Researcher Network on Pre-modern Japanese Books” was inaugurated at the National Institute of Japanese Literature (NIJL) in 2014. We have continued to promote this project to the present day in cooperation with twenty domestic universities, as well as a number of universities and other institutions overseas.

This presentation will introduce a variety of tools for utilizing information resources on the Internet as well as some important techniques for conducting research on the humanities in Japan by presenting examples of our reference services offered by the reference librarians who specialize in the humanities at the National Diet Library (NDL).

Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR) is a digital archive of Asian historical records. JACAR has built and operates an online database for releasing Asian historical records concerning modern Japanese relations with other countries, particularly those in Asia. The documents of the archive are provided by the National Archives of Japan, the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and the National Institute for Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense of Japan.