Encylopedia of Japan

Free trials to the Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan are no longer available as the title is being discontinued.

The foremost reference source on Japan, Kodansha's Encyclopedia of Japan, was launched February 2002 as a fully searchable online resource. 

www.ency-japan.com offers comprehensive scholarship on all aspects of Japanese society from its origins to its present position as a world power.

Praise for the Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan Online
"Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan is highly recommended for academic and large public libraries as well as any institution where current, accurate information on all aspects of Japan is a necessity...this work is unsurpassed for scope and currency."
RBB/Booklist, April 15, 2002

Description:
Over the past two decades Japan's power to affect the rest of our planet has grown at an astonishing rate. The global reach of Japanese industry, finance and technology have been felt in almost every country. Yet Japan remains an enigma to most people, in part because Japan has faced more formidable barriers to the export of its cultural, artistic, and intellectual accomplishments than it has to the products of its industries. Today, the volume of information on Japan that reaches other countries is small in comparison to the need.

This encyclopedia is an attempt to redress this imbalance. It is:

• a fully, updated online resource that will give the user a key to unlocking the complex society of late 20th century Japan
• a wealth of hard data on Japanese politics, government, economics, and
  corporate behavior
• a treasury of Japanese art, culture, and history
• a guide to the more subtle traditions that have shaped Japanese life and
  thought across the centuries

The coverage of Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan Online includes:

• 11,203 entries
• 1,988 articles on geography
• 1,186 articles on history
• 869 articles on literature
• 455 articles on religion
• 544 articles on fine arts
• 324 articles on performing arts
• Articles on cities, museums, philosophy and thought, science and technology, and much more
• 2,000,000 words
• 1,119 portraits
• 651 photographs and illustrations
• 47 prefectural maps
• 4,066 titles for cross-reference
• 698 URLs

Articles are fully searchable using Boolean search capabilities, browse by category, browse by A-Z list of titles, and the map of regions and prefectures.