Trends in digital cultural heritage in Japan, 1980-2012

Abstract

In Japan, many different organisations have played a part in creating the digital content that we now see being shared on the internet. Starting in the 1980s, developments in digital cultural heritage took place mainly in five kinds of institution: museums, libraries, archives, university and research institutes, plus the world of business. Museums and libraries played a leading role in the 1980s, and they were joined in the 1990s by universities and commercial enterprises, which developed digital content in a variety of ways. In the 2000s archival institutions became involved, and museums, libraries and archives began to form networks to enable seamless retrieval of digital cultural heritage. In the 2010s, the focus moved to the sharing of data and specifically the need to establish a common approach for the exchange of metadata for the ‘Semantic Web’. Creating content for tablet devices also became important, as did the question of standardising technology. The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 brought a keen awareness of the need to create digital records to preserve and share memories of disasters.