Archives In Japan Research Articles

Trials and Tribulations of Accessing Corporate Archives in Japan

A lack of accessible corporate archival material has long been a challenge for researchers of Japanese business history. This note digs deeper into the key issues associated with accessing company archives in Japan and proposes several research strategies. It does so by documenting and analysing attempts to access company archives as part of my own research into the absorption of foreign knowledge and technology in the Japanese rubber industry between 1900 and 1965. The assumption is that the lessons from this research project are applicable to corporate archive access issues in Japan more broadly.

Adrenaline Rush: the race for the crystallization of adrenal extracts by Takamine and Uenaka

Introduction: The adrenal gland was first described by Eustachio in 1564, but its physiologic role remained unknown for three centuries. In the late 1890’s, many researchers had directed their attention to the isolation of adrenal extracts, but all failed until the successful efforts of biochemists Jokichi Takamine and Keizo Uenaka. Takamine’s patents on Adrenalin were the first ever awarded for a hormone and he used his royalties to improve international relations between America and Japan. There is considerable controversy, however, in how adrenaline was first crystalized, where the work was done, and to whom the credit for its discovery is given. Sources and Methods: Published contemporary medical literature, newspaper archives, and publicly accessible research archives in Japan, Sweden, and the United States Results: Takamine was a multilingual businessman with a background in western and eastern medicine, a successful biochemist, and importer/exporter before he took on the project of isolating adrenaline. His successful patents and savvy business acumen allowed him to support innovative research in physiology. He hired Keizo Uenaka, who had experience with isolating ephedrine, to develop the critical methods required to crystallize adrenal extracts where other contemporaries, including Takamine, had failed. Takamine applied for and was awarded five immediate US patents for the discovery although he did not include Uenaka in that effort. Takamine co-founded the Nippon Club and the Japanese Society of New York, both of which ultimately survived the anti-Japanese fervor of the 1940s and, in 1912, worked to bring the gift of 3,000 Japanese Cherry Trees to Washington DC. The Japanese Patent Office honored Takamine as one of Japan’s 10 Great Inventors but it was only after Uenaka’s death in 1960, and the discovery of his laboratory manuals, was Uenaka’s full role in the discovery of adrenaline made known. Conclusions: Jokichi Takamine was an international benefactor and biochemist extraordinaire who, with Keizo Uenaka, was the first to crystallize adrenal medullary catechols. Takamine’s efforts saved lives and did much to engender a spirit of Japanese-American goodwill that persisted for decades.

The History of the IT Environment of Sinology in Japan

This paper addresses the following: First, it summarizes the history of the IT environment of sinology in Japan with a focus on Chinese character processing. Then, it introduces the open-access digital archive projects in Japan as well as ICT-based research activities. An attempt was made to allow multiple Chinese characters/Chinese input from PCs in Japan beginning in the 1980s. At first, Chinese characters were implemented applying special hardware or software to JIS Chinese character encoding. After the 1990s, these approaches disappeared with the spread of Unicode and a multilingual mixed environment became more widely available. The digital archives in Japan are described focusing on databases, digital libraries, etc. Although Japan’s number of independent databases has decreased, the paper examines the current contributions to sinology studies, including a Chinese character DB that interlinks with Unicode.org and digital literature archives in Chinese characters that are held by universities and public institutions. Additionally, there are numerous research studies on humanities and oriental studies as research associations and societies have been in operation for several years.

加藤 諭『大学アーカイブズの成立と展開―公文書管理と国立大学―』

加藤 諭『大学アーカイブズの成立と展開―公文書管理と国立大学―』

A Report of Digital Archives in Japan from my investigation into studies of Japan in Poland

A Report of Digital Archives in Japan from my investigation into studies of Japan in Poland

Looking Back on the Past Thirty Years of Archives in Japan: Debate over Public Records and Archives with Regional Importance

Looking Back on the Past Thirty Years of Archives in Japan: Debate over Public Records and Archives with Regional Importance

Television Archives in Japan

Television Archives in Japan

資産としてのビジネスアーカイブズ : 付加価値を生み出す活用の必要性と課題( アーカイブズの現在)

資産としてのビジネスアーカイブズ : 付加価値を生み出す活用の必要性と課題( アーカイブズの現在)

利用者の視点からみた米国国立公文書館 : 丸裸にされた軍事関係文書を追い求めて( アーカイブズの現在)

利用者の視点からみた米国国立公文書館 : 丸裸にされた軍事関係文書を追い求めて( アーカイブズの現在)

全国大学史資料協議会編, 『日本の大学アーカイヴズ』, 京都大学学術出版会, 2005.10, 424p., 4,800円, ISBN4-87698-665-7

全国大学史資料協議会編, 『日本の大学アーカイヴズ』, 京都大学学術出版会, 2005.10, 424p., 4,800円, ISBN4-87698-665-7

日本におけるビジネスアーカイブズ戦略構築を目指して : 『ビジネスアーカイブズに関する全国的戦略(イングランドおよびウェールズ版)』試訳

日本におけるビジネスアーカイブズ戦略構築を目指して : 『ビジネスアーカイブズに関する全国的戦略(イングランドおよびウェールズ版)』試訳

総論：日本におけるデジタルアーカイブのゆくえを探る：国際的動向を踏まえた，「より深い利用」に向けての展望

総論：日本におけるデジタルアーカイブのゆくえを探る：国際的動向を踏まえた，「より深い利用」に向けての展望

Current Status and Issues of Medical Archives in Japan:

Current Status and Issues of Medical Archives in Japan:

Exhibitions in local archives in Japan

While the National Archives of Japan was established in 1971, the first local archives in the country was opened much earlier, in 1954. There are now about 60 local archives, which have held exhibitions of their holdings, from the earliest period up to the present. Initially, the exhibitions were designed to raise awareness amongst senior officials within the authorities. The collections of local archives in Japan are characterised by a large portion of ancient manuscripts passed down for generations by established families. Because pre-sixteenth century records are particularly valuable, private historians have shown a strong interest in them. It was not long before the archives’ exhibitions came to provide rare opportunities to get a first-hand look at such ancient documents. These exhibitions were held for a limited time only. Following the enactment of the 1987 the National Archives Act, local archives started to organise permanent exhibitions, focusing on their functions and uses, to publicise their ...

Digital archives and metadata as critical infrastructure to keep community memory safe for the future – lessons from Japanese activities

This paper discusses some key issues for digital archives and metadata in a networked information environment to keep our community memory for the future. The paper is based primarily on the experiences and lessons learnt by the author from his research activities on metadata and digital archives. The author participated in a study group on digital archives hosted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the Japanese Government from February 2011 to March 2012. The group discussed the promotion of digital archives in Japan, particularly at memory institutions. The Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011 caused serious damage in the north-eastern part of Japan, especially the Pacific coastal regions. This disaster significantly affected the discussions of the group. The basic lesson that the author learned is that digital archives built on a robust information environment are essential for keeping our community memory safe for the future. Not only do the primary digital resources need to be properly maintained and preserved for the future but also secondary resources, metadata and meta-metadata. We need to use Linked Open Data technologies to enhance the usability of such digital resources in the archives.

A proposal for the future of archives in Japan : From a view point of a consultant on management of current records

A proposal for the future of archives in Japan : From a view point of a consultant on management of current records

The European model and the archive in Japan

The influence of European and especially German historiography on the formation of the modern academic discipline in Japan is undisputed, as is the importance of the German historian Ludwig Rieß. Undeniably, Rieß contributed to the organization of the academic discipline by teaching future historians and taking an active part in the establishment of the Historical Society, as well as by the example of his own research in the history of Japan. But how significant was his influence on the establishment and maintenance of archives in Japan? Japanese scholars had been collecting and working with primary documents long before Rieß arrived; indeed, the earliest efforts predate even the measures introduced under the Meiji government in the 1870s. This article outlines the beginnings of komonjogaku (the study of primary documents), giving particular attention to the work of its pioneer, Kume Kunitake. The author argues that while European methods based on archival research inspired and served to justify Japanese activities, indigenous traditions were at least equally important. Moreover, parallels with western countries are not merely a result of western imports but reflect the common responses to global processes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

One Film, or Many?: The Multiple Texts of the Colonial Korean Film Volunteer

Until recently, studies on films from colonial Korea in the Japanese empire had to rely primarily on secondary texts, such as memoirs, journal and newspaper articles, and film reviews. The recent discovery of original film texts from archives in Japan, China, Russia, and elsewhere and their availability on DVD format, prompted an important turning point in the scholarship. However, juxtaposing these newly released DVD versions with other archival sources exposes significant differences among the existing versions of texts. For instance, a newly discovered script reveals that important segments are missing in the recently released DVD version of the propaganda film Volunteer . There also exist important discrepancies in the dialogue among the original film script, the actual film version, the synopsis, and the Japanese subtitles. Some of the Korean-language dialogue, which might be interpreted as exhibiting some ambivalence toward Japanese imperial policies, was completely silenced through strategic omissions in the Japanese-language subtitles targeting Japanese audiences. Some Japanese-language translations of the script also exhibit drastic changes from the original Korean-language dialogue. Piecing together such fragmented and fraught linguistic dissonance found in the colonial archives, we can conjecture that viewers from the colony and the metropole of Volunteer may have consumed very different versions of the film. This article aims to examine the significance of such dissonance, which has only recently become audible in so-called films of transcolonial coproduction.

Sailor diplomat: Nomura Kichisaburo and the Japanese-American War

As Japan's pre-Pearl Harbor ambassador to the United States, Admiral Nomura Kichisaburo (1877-1964) played a significant role in a tense and turbulent period in Japanese-U.S. relations. Scholars tend to view his actions and missteps as ambassador as representing the failure of diplomacy to avert the outbreak of hostilities between the two paramount Pacific powers. This extensively researched biography casts new light on the life and career of this important figure. Connecting his experiences as a naval officer to his service as foreign minister and ambassador, and later as 'father' of Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces and proponent of the U.S.-Japanese alliance, this study reassesses Nomura's contributions as a hard-nosed realist whose grasp of the underlying realities of Japanese-U.S. relations went largely unappreciated by the Japanese political and military establishment. In highlighting the complexities and conundrums of Nomura's position, as well as the role of the Imperial Navy in the formulation of Japan's foreign policy, Peter Mauch draws upon rarely accessed materials from naval and diplomatic archives in Japan as well as various collections of personal papers, including Nomura's, which Mauch discovered in 2005 and which are now housed in the National Diet Library.

Current trend of Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room(<Special feature>Current states of the Archives in Japan)

Current trend of Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room(<Special feature>Current states of the Archives in Japan)