Asahi Shinbun Cross-Search (Asahi News Database), provided by Asahi Newspaper, is a succeeding version of Kikuzo II Visual for Libraries. This is the largest newspaper article database in Japan, allowing uses to simultaneously search 16 million newspaper articles and advertisements from 1879 to present. Those articles published since 1985 are available for full-text searching. Also this database contains weekly magazines published by the newspaper company, Aera and Shūkan Asahi, Asahi Graph (1923-1956) and the historical photo archive, which contains approximately 10,000 photographic records mostly taken in Asia during WWII.

Fuzoku gaho is the first graphic magazine published in Japan, published from Feb. 1889 to Mar. 1916. This online version contains 518 issues, including special issues on the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese war, etc. This is extremely rich graphic magazine, containing more than 6600 illustrations (2,000 are colored) and more than 3000 photographs. (Restricted to 2 simultaneous users.)

IRDB, which superseded JAIRO in April 2019, harvests the metadata of academic resources (journal articles, theses or dissertations, departmental bulletin papers, research papers, etc.) accumulated in academic institutional repositories in Japan. The accumulated metadata are searchable in IRDB as well as other academic platforms, such as CiNii, NDL Search, and Open AIRE.

English Version

Consists of fully searchable and browsable databases including English-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries, Encyclopedia Nipponica and Encyclopedia of Japan, articles published in a weekly magazine Ekonomisuto, collection of Tōyō bunko series and other visual and sound databases. (Restricted to 2 simultaneous users.)

When using this database and other optional databases provided by the distributor of JapanKnowledge Lib (i.e., Nihon rekishi chimei taikei and Kokushi daijiten), please open a different browser to login smoothly. Internet Explorer and Google Chrome are recommended browsers, though other browsers can be used.

This is the online archive of newspaper articles published by The Japan Times, Japan’s largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper company. This database enables users to easily search for articles published in The Japan Times, from the first issue in 1897. Every March, articles published in the previous 12 months are added to this digital archive. This offers valuable historical content covering domestic and international politics, economy, culture and other useful topics.

Covers the contents published in the Japan Times from 1997 to present. This collection also includes images, video and audio files.

The Japanese Historical Maps Collection of the East Asian Library contains about 2,300 early maps of Japan and the World. Represented in this online collection are a selection of maps and books from the collection.

A digitized version of the print edition of Kokushi daijiten, one of the largest encyclopedias of Japanese history. Including approx. 54,000 entries, it encompasses every aspect of Japan's history and includes entries in related fields such as archaeology, folklore, religion, art, Japanese language, Japanese literature and geography. (Restricted to 2 simultaneous user.)

This database is now merged into JapanKnowledge Lib. To search this content only, select “AdvancedSearch” and then select “Enc. of Japanese History or 国史大辞典” from the drop down box.

A great compendium that exhaustively and systematically covers the fundamental historical materials of Japanese history, including Kojiki (An Account of Ancient Matters), Tokugawa jikki (True Chronicle of the Tokugawa Period), Engi shiki (Ancient Japanese Governmental Regulations), etc. This e-book edition is available through JapanKnowledge.

Online database version of the 50 volumes of Japanese historical gazetteer, published by Heibonsha. Includes 200,000 headings with detailed explanation of the place name. Continuously updated.

This database is now merged into JapanKnowledge Lib. To search this content only, select “AdvancedSearch” and then select “Japanese Historical Place Names or 日本歴史地名大系” from the drop down box.