This guide provides some starting points for your research on Japanese studies. You will also find in-depth information about the Library collections as well as links to freely available web-sites.
Jiyeon Wood
Head of Japanese & Korean section
Hiroko Roberts-Taira
Library Assistant for Japanese section
Asahi Shimbun Digital, the digital version of Japan’s leading daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun, has become available for university libraries. This service provides the latest news released in the past 24 hours and full page images of the past two weeks. It also enables users to search the full text articles including clipped images of the past one year with a keyword and a publication date. The content is updated on a daily basis, and the database always includes the latest information. The users can access this database at any time and from anywhere through the university’s network.
Main content and coverage:
- Full page images of the national edition (morning and evening editions): Past two weeks
- Full page images of the prefectural edition(all prefectures excluding Okinawa): Past one week
- Full text articles and clipped images: Past one year - be on Saturday (Supplement for Saturday): Past five weeks
- Asahi Shimbun Globe (Monthly supplement): Past two issues
Shiryo Sanshu (Collected Historical Materials) is a major collection of historical materials in which important works have been converted to modern-style Japanese script (reprint) for ease of use. Consisting of an old diaries section and an old documents section, important historical materials of a wide range of genres and from different eras, from ancient to early-modern times, as well as diaries of Imperial Court nobles, warriors, and Buddhist and Shinto priests, have been converted to modern-style Japanese script.
Based on the latest printed editions, the JapanKnowledge editions contain the full text data as page images and as pages converted to modern-style Japanese script. The texts can be browsed, searched and copied, and it is possible to obtain search results by narrowing searches to date, book name, era, and so on.
Want to recommend a book the library doesn't have? please use our 'Online recommendation' form.
The 12th Mitsubishi Corporation Summer School in Early Modern Japanese Palaeography will be held at the University of Cambridge between Monday 4 August 2025 and Friday 15 August 2025. The theme for this year is: Tsutaya Jūzaburō, Friends, and Rivals.
The call for applications is now open:
Call for applications 2025 – Japanese Early Modern Palaeography (wakancambridge.com)
Trial News!
The University of Cambridge now has online access to Documents Related to the 78th Japanese Prime Miniter Kiichi Miyazawa (オンライン版 宮澤喜一関係文書), as part of a 30-day free trial taking place from Tuesday, 7th January to 6th February 2025.
The collection covers all of Miyazawa's important positions from the 1950s to the 2000s, and is comprised of approximately 7,000 items of original documents.
User Manual can be found at https://j-dac.jp/MJPH/usage.html
Please send us feedback about this trial via online feedback form.
