Overview

Mission

In 1987, the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) was established as an inter-university research institute of the Ministry of Education with the goals of carrying out international, scholarly, and interdisciplinary research on Japanese culture, and providing research support to Japan studies scholars around the world. In that spirit, this library's mission is to build a wide-ranging collection of bibliographical sources required for the study of Japan and to make those sources available for Japan studies scholars in Japan and overseas to use in their research. The library also serves as the home library for the Department of Japanese Studies in the School of Cultural and Social Studies, which was established in April 1992 as part of the Graduate University for Advanced Studies.

Collection

The library is building a wide-ranging collection of the bibliographical sources required for the study of Japan. The library places particular emphasis on acquiring foreign-language books on Japan written and published overseas. At Nichibunken such books are called "Gaisho (Japanese studies and related books in foreign languages)".

• Books (Japanese: approx. 348,000; Foreign-language: approx. 167,000, of which approx. 64,000 are "foreign books")
• Magazines (Japanese: approx. 7,100 titles; Foreign-language: approx. 1,500 titles)
• Audiovisual Materials (Videos, CDs, Maps, Photographs: approx. 190,000 titles)
• Microfilm (approx. 3,500 titles)
• Electronic Materials (approx. 2,200 titles)

（current as of March 2017）