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Japanese Studies: Online Text & Data Archives

Free Electronic resources for the Study of Japan

Online Text & Data Archives

Communist Party of Japan Files
A free, online inventory of the files of the Communist Party of Japan. The finding aid is part of Comintern Online, which offers two services: a free online inventory to the complete Comintern Archives (55,000,000 pages); and a subscription-based service to 1.2 million digital images of the most frequently used documents. Free access to the inventory is available after registering online at www.comintern-online.com.

Institute of Social Science Japan, Tokyo University
Shakai Kagaku Kenkyūsho (Institute of Social Science, ISS), University of Tokyo, was established in 1946 for the purpose of carrying out empirical and comparative research on Japan, Western countries, and socialist countries from the perspectives of law, political science and economics.

  • Data archive
    Comprehensive data archive of social science data concerning Japan; data available for secondary analysis. Collected, compiled, and digitized by the SSJDA, which is a part of the ISS.

Japan Public Opinion Location Library
The Roper Center's Japanese Data Archive has two components: JPOLL, the on-line, question-level database; and the Japanese data library, which is made up of thousands of Japanese survey research studies.

The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
Has the world's largest archive of computerized social science data.

IDEA: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
Provides four databases with data organized by country:

Ministry of Defense White Papers Bōei hakusho
Provides Japanese white papers from 1970 to the present, and can be searched by both date of publication and keyword.

 

National Diet Library: Modern Japanese Political History Room Findings 憲政資料室の所蔵資料の検査
Includes three online catalogs:

NHK Surveys
Survey data collected by the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute (Bunken). Surveys are intended to further understanding of broadcasting culture, and cover both Japan and other countries. Data is in Japanese only. Surveys and results are organized under subheadings:

  • Kokunai hōsō jijō 国内放送事情
  • Nenkan hōsōshi 年鑑放送史
  • Yoron chōsa 世論調査

Ōhara Institute for Social Research
The Ōhara Institute was founded on February 9, 1919 in Osaka. It was the first research institute in Japan in the social science fields. It specializes in labor issues, and indexes 260,000 records. The site includes links to their online catalog, members of the institute, Japanese labor unions, political parties, employers' associations, labor related groups, research institutes etc. Includes a searchable database in Japanese.

Paul Hensel's International Relations Data Site
Maintained by Paul Hensel of the Department of Political Science at the University of North Texas.  This website points to seven pages of links, and includes useful sources related to processes of international conflict and cooperation.

Saitama University Kyōsei Shakai Kenkyū Senta
共生社会研究センター

This center holds primary materials on NGOs, NPOs, labor problems, consumer movements, citizens and residents' movements, and environmental movements. In addition to taking over the privately run Jūmin Toshokan's materials last fall, the new center has acquired collections from several other sources. The materials include complete runs of many "minikomi" organizational publications, plus trial records from various kinds of social movement-backed lawsuits and the original materials from some large scale research projects on labor issues. Headed by Professor Yoshihiko Kamii of the Economics Faculty, the Center is committed to an admirable policy of open access. 

Social and Opinion Research Database (SORD)
Maintained at Sapporo Gakuen University, this site provides data collected from social surveys directed by members of JSS (The Japan Sociological Society); in English and Japanese.

"The World and Japan" Database Project
A collection of 4 databases concerning foreign relations and politics in Japan. The 4 databases available are: A Chronology of the 20th Century (Japanese only); Post WWII Japanese Politics and Diplomacy (English and Japanese); Foreign Policy of Asia-Pacific Countries (Japanese only); and Abbreviations for International Relations (Japanese only).