National Diet Library, Japan (国立国会図書館) is equivalent to the Library of Congress which holds the largest number of library materials among Japanese libraries. The following three databases are essential for your research among many tools that NDL provides currently.
NDL OPAC (National Diet Library OPAC) Open Access catalog to the materials which NDL holds such as books, journals, National Diet proceedings, digitized materials, and archives.
NDL Search(NDL Search) Provides cross-access to the data among academic and public libraries, including NDL.
Digital Library from Meiji Era (近代デジタルライブラリー) NDL Digital Library contains 570,000 images (as of 01/20/12) from books that were published in Meiji, Taisho, and the early Showa in Japan.
NII (National Institute of Informatics) provides several content services for academic research. WebCatPlus for book search and CiNii for article search are the most useful databases for students.
WebCat Plus is an open access catalog for books held in Japanese academic libraries and NDL.
CiNii is a citation database for academic and scholarly journal articles.
JACAR (アジア歴史資料センター Japan Center for Asian Historical Records) Digital database which provides access to Japanese government documents, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Army and historical documents in Asia from 1860 to 1945.
Japanese Databases available at University of Illinois
MagazinePlus Japanese article index covering National Diet Library's Zasshi Kiji Sakuin, scholarly journals, and popular magazines.
Koseisha Contains complete article index to magazines and periodicals from Meiji to current, including:
Following three databases are trials (currently unavailable) but contain resources from Meiji through Showa.
聞蔵II(朝日新聞記事データベース) Covers news articles and photos from 1879 to current. Available from February 1 to March 31, 2012.
ヨミダス歴史館(読売新聞データベース) Contains articles from Meiji to current. Further information and instructions can be found at: http://guides.library.illinois.edu/content.php?pid=175315.
Meiji Japan Username: MGJSP83, Password: WTYMBZ4 Availabel by February 3, 2012.
Reference books
Kokushi daijiten 国史大辞典 DS845.T3553
Nihonshi kojiten 日本史広辞典 DS833.N532 1997
Nihon kingendaishi jiten 日本近現代史辞典 DS833.N42
Asahi Nihon rekishi jinbutsu jiten 朝日日本歴史人物事典 DS834.A93
Nihonshi jinmei yomikata jiten 日本史人名よみかた辞典 DS834.N5426
Dare nimo yomeru Nihon kindaishi nenpyo: furigana tsuki 誰でも読める日本近代史年表: ふりがな付き DS833.D37
Nenpyo Nihon rekishi 年表日本歴史 DS833.N38X
Newspaper reproductions
Kanayomi Shinbun 仮名読新聞 AN151 K36
Tōkyō Nichinichi shinbun 東京日日新聞 F. AN151.T65
Yūbin hōchi shinbun 郵便報知新聞 AN151.Y83
