Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture

Dictionary of Literary Biography : Contains biographies, critical analysis and bibliographies for authors of every nation and literary discipline. It has a volume on medieval Japanese writers, another on the 1868-1945 period and one on post World War II authors.

Japan Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture

A Concise dictionary of modern Japanese history

Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (Kodansha): the most comprehensive encyclopedia about Japan in the English language. An online version of the Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan is available via Japan Knowledge Plus . 

How to use the Japanese interface to search the English-language encyclopedia:


 
(link to downloadable PDF instructions )
 
Country information:

• World Factbook on Japan
• Background Notes on Japan
• Countries and their Culture (chapter on Japan)
• Japan Atlas: Offered by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Japan Atlas website offers "visual presentations on a variety of topics to anyone interested in the nature, traditions, and current social trends of Japan".
• Japanese Government Statistics Bureau portal: Includes census data from 1995, 2000 and 2005.  Maps since 1960. Specific Ministries offer their own statistics too.

Bibliography of Asian Studies
This bibliography is comparable to the print Bibliography of Asian Studies. This source is an index to western-language articles and book chapters on all parts of Asia. Coverage: 1971-present.
You can browse by country, including Japan.

Japan Knowledge Plus

Consists of over 30 titles of reference materials and some full text journals. Includes encyclopedias like the Encyclopedia Nipponica (in Japanese) and the Kodansha Encyclopedia (in English), as well as a number of dictionaries such as the Shogakukan Random House English-Japanese dictionary, with 345,000 entries. Also includes atlases, videos, and full text books (the collection of Tokyo bunko). See complete list.

JSTOR Hundreds of full-text journals in a variety of subject areas, including Japanese literature, history, arts, etc. Includes the Journal of Japanese Studies and Monumenta Nipponica. Coverage of most journals extends back to the journal's first issue (sometimes in the 1800s) up to, but not including the last few years. How to export to RefWorks

Tips for searching JSTOR:

• always choose "advanced search".
• You can select "Asian studies" from the list of disciplines, but other disciplines may include articles about Japan.

CiNii Articles
Search academic articles published in academic society journals, university research bulletins or articles included in the National Diet Library's Japanese Periodicals Index Database and databases.major features. Many articles are open access while others can be requested via InterLibrary Loan.

Project Muse
Contains a few journals in Asian studies, including recent issues of the Journal of Japanese Studies and Monumenta Nipponica.

MLA Bibliography
A subject index for books, articles and websites published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Covers Japanese language and literature as well as Japanese Canadian literature.

Historical Abstracts
The most comprehensive listing of articles for the history of countries outside North America. How to export to RefWorks

Japan-related journals at OU:

• Japanese Studies
• Japan Forum
• Japan Quarterly
• Journal of Japanese Studies
• Japan Echo Web
• Critical Asian Studies
  
• Aera
• Other journals:  Japan Periodicals

ARTstor
ARTstor is a nonprofit digital library of more than one million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences with a suite of software tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes.
Includes over 14,000 images from or about Japan.

East Asia Image Collection
An open-access archive of digitized photographs, negatives, postcards, and slides of imperial Japan (1868-1945), its Asian empire (1895-1945) and occupied Japan (1947-52)

Forvo - a wiki where native speakers can post the pronounciation of words. You can learn how to pronounce a word and also see how speakers in different regions pronounce it differently. 

Wordsteps - a fun way to learn new vocabulary

CAPL - a growing collection of images for language learning

JapanesePod101 - Almost daily podcast that provides daily Japanese lessons at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Subscribe in iTunes.

Lang-8 - Write journal entries in the language you are learning and native speakers will help correct grammar and vocabulary.

Anki - A spaced repetition software (SRS) flashcard program, offers excellent Japanese support. Users share decks of vocabulary, grammar, and kanji.

Search the library for books by subjects related to Japan:
Japan
Japanese Literature
Japan--History
Women--Japan

Readers
Japanese language readers at KL

eBook collections

HathiTrust--Subject: Japan Freely available e-books related to Japan

Aozora Bunko Full-text classical Japanese literature

Kindai Digital Library Digitized books from the Meiji and Taisho periods.

To request an item from another library:

Digital Collections of the National Archives of Japan
Includes documents, scrolls, maps, photographs, drawings, and more. Can be searched and browsed by category.

National Diet Library, Kindai Digital Library
Full text of some 35,000 titles from the Meiji era (1868-1912). Guidance in English.

Japanese Centre of International P.E.N.
Full text of modern Japanese literature.

E-Asia Digital Library: Japan
Japanese books and resources in English translation provided by the University of Oregon.

FOREast: Internet East Asia Library

Kyoto Digital Library

Japan Foundation (English)
Japanes government sponsored grants and events.

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KL pathfinder on Japanese art.
KL pathfinder on Japanese history.

Writing Resources for Students
Find in-depth information about the mechanics of writing, MLA/APA citations, avoiding plagiarism, and more.

Writing Center
The consultants can help you with every stage of the writing process.

Ask a Librarian

• by phone at 248-370-4426
• via chat with reference IM
• via email at Email Us!
• in person in Kresge Library.

Research Consultation
Request an individual session to get help with your research. You can expect the session within 2-3 days.