Japan Team
The Japan Team was established
after a divisional reorganization in 2004. The team has responsibility
for the Japanese Collection, including collection development,
reference services and outreach programs.
Japanese Collection
The Japanese collection began in
1875 when the governments of the United States and Japan agreed
to exchange their respective government publications and for them
to be housed in the Library of Congress. The first shipment arrived
in 1876 and the collection grew slowly until Dr. Shiho Sakanishi
became the first Area Specialist on Japan in 1930. During her tenure,
Dr. Sakanishi collected about 900 titles, most of which were literary
works. In 1938, the Japanese Section was established as part of
the then Orientalia Division, which was renamed the Asian Division
in 1978. The Japanese language collection, probably the most extensive
in the world outside Japan, has grown to over 1.15 million books
and serial volumes, 10,100 reels of microfilm, and 15,000 sheets
of microfiche. The Japanese collection covers research materials
in virtually all subjects except clinical medicine and technical
agriculture. The collections are strong in the humanities and social
sciences, central and local government publications, and academic
journals including the areas of science and technology.
The collection received an important gift in 1905 when Crosby
Stuart Noyes, the journalist and editor of the Washington Evening
Star, donated 658 illustrated books, watercolors, drawings, woodblock
prints and lithographs to the library. Dr. Kan’ichi Asakawa,
who first purchased books in Japan on behalf of the library in
1907, began early acquisitions. These included works on Tokugawa
government laws, local administration, history, regional geography,
and Buddhism. Dr. Walter Tennyson Swingle, a botanist with a special
interest in Asian botany, also purchased Works for the library
between 1915 and 1926.
The collection also has approximately 5,500 titles of rare publications
and manuscript copies of works produced before the end of the Tokugawa
Shogunate in 1868 and the beginning of the Meiji period (1868-1912).
These collections include one of the world's earliest surviving
printed materials, the dharani prayer charms from 770 A.D. Also
noteworthy is a collection of 403 titles of traditional mathematics
called wasan. Among other pre-Meiji classics on religion, history,
and literature are a rare edition of the Japanese literary masterpiece
Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji), that was published in Kyoto
in 1654 and is complete with all 60 volumes, and the rare manuscript
Kabuki sugatami, written by the kabuki actor Nakamura Nakazo in
1776.
The Japanese collection increased dramatically after World War
II when an estimated 300,000 volumes of Japanese language research
materials were added with the transfer of resources acquired during
the Occupation of Japan from 1945-1952 and sent initially to the
Washington Document Center (WDC). These materials contain extensive
research reports prepared by the South Manchurian Railway Company
and the East Asia Research Institute. Much of these materials are
pre-World War II studies on such areas as Korea, Taiwan, China,
Mongolia, and the Pacific Islands. Included in this collection
are Japanese military publications, censored materials from the
former Japanese Ministry of Home Affairs, and other important collections
vital to comparative research of Japanese thought before and after
the end of World War II.
The microfilm collection includes pre-1946 censored books and
serials, and other Japanese government documents, as well as national
and local Japanese newspapers, and titles of the South Manchurian
Railway Company publications. Selected materials from the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs archives, materials of the Japanese Army and
Navy and other agencies of the pre-1946 period are available in
the Microform Reading Room.
The Japan Documentation Center (JDC) was established in 1992 to
collect and disseminate difficult-to-obtain unpublished public
policy literature, often referred to as "grey literature," the
bulk of which were issued between 1993 and 1999, and 95% of which
are in Japanese. The project successfully developed an information
management system and a database of over 5,000 items that included
policy studies and reports, white papers and annual reports, draft
legislation, think-tank reports, and public opinion polls. With
the closing of the Japan Documentation Center on March 31, 2000,
the JDC database will not be updated. Materials already in the
collection, however, will be serviced by the Japanese Section staff
and can be searched online at http://www.loc.gov/rr/asian/jdc.html
The modern holdings of the Japanese collection also include such
major Japanese newspapers as the Asahi shinbun (microfilm edition),
Mainichi shinbun, Nihon keizai shinbun, and Yomiuri
shinbun (reduced
print editions).
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