Local Histories

Division of responsibility for local histories was initiated by funding received from the Japan United States Friendship Commission.  After that funding ceased in the early 1990s, some libraries have expanded their collecting of these core materials.  Nonetheless, the division remains reflected in the historical collections.

East Coast: Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Yale
Harvard: Hokkaido to Kanagawa;including Tokyo (14 prefectures)
Columbia: Central Honshū: Niigata to Aichi plus Kyoto (10 prefectures)
Yale: Southwestern Honshū: Mie to Yamaguchi (11 prefectures)
Princeton: Shikoku, Kyūshū, Okinawa (12 prefectures)
The prefectures are arranged in the East-West order used in Japanese atlases and dictionaries.

Mid-West Universities: Chicago and University of Michigan
Chicago collected on Western Japan, especially Osaka and the Kinki/Kansai region, while Michigan collected on Eastern Japan. Both libraries have expanded their collecting focus, although Chicago has a special fund to support materials relating to Osaka. Ohio State has a strong collection on Okinawa and on its sister prefecture, Saitama.

West Coast: Berkeley and Stanford
Traditionally, Stanford covered the northeastern half of Japan and Berkeley the southern half. The agreement covered histories of prefectures, sub-prefectures, cities and other sub-units.

Hawaii
The University of Hawaii has a strong collections on Satsuma and the Ryūkyūs

Contemporary Topics

Japanese postwar international financial and political relations
Japan's role in international trade and monetary relations, Japan's return to the international arena, its relations with the United States, and its continuing desire for a significant global role. The accent is on not only external relations but also on the domestic sources of its policies. (Columbia)

Contemporary Japanese politics
Focusing on those that are directly related to Japan's economic policy and development. Emphasis is placed on publications of the various political parties. (Harvard)

Japanese interest groups
These include groups promoting the interests of business, telecommunications, labor, foreign trade, international friendship, industry and agriculture. These groups exert a strong influence in Japanese politics, security and economics. Princeton will continue to acquire materials on and by these interest groups and their relations with government ministries such as MITI and the private sector. (Princeton)

Sociological publications
Publications that describe, analyze, and offer insights into the complexities of changing Japanese society. Subjects of special interest are: changing life patterns, life styles and aspirations, internationalization of social life, marriage and family, expanding women's role in the work place and society; non-economic aspects of work such as work habits, work ethics, and motivation on the job; changing attitudes toward leisure and retirement, and the role of government and the private sector in people's lives.

Newspapers

The California system has a system-wide agreement on Japanese newspapers:

• UC Berkeley: Nihon keizai shinbun (and earlier titles) microfilm 1876-1944; shukusatsuban 1949-1995
• UC Davis:Sankei shinbun microform 1958-2000
• UCLA: Mainichi shinbun microform 1872-present
• UC Santa Barbara: Yomiuri shinbun microfilm 1874-1969/6; shukusatsuban 1969/7-present
• Stanford: Asahi shinbun (microform) 1888-1926, 1945-50; shukusatsuban) 1926-44, 1951-present

CRL has complete runs of the Japan Times and the Asahi shinbun.

The Union List of Japanese Serials and Newspapers has newspapers holdings for many libraries (and indicates years with missing issues), but the online version does not distinguish between formats.