Japanese Studies and Language

Welcome to the Japanese Studies Subject Research Guide

Your subject librarians have designed this guide to highlight online resources at the University of Melbourne Library that are relevant to Japanese Studies. 

This guide is intended to be a starting point for your research. For a more comprehensive list of Library resources for this subject please visit the A-Z eJournals and Databases website.

Five things you can do to start your research in Japanese Studies:                       

Note: The buttons below will open resources in new windows.

1. New to the University of Melbourne? Visit the New Users' Library Guide

2. Build your subject knowledge with the JapanKnowledge+

3. Develop your research skills with this video (2:10 mins)

4. Search for a book on your topic in the Library Catalogue

5. Search for a journal article in Proquest Central

Tips on how to search for Japanese resources:

When using the UniMelb library catalogue:

• search using either Romanised Japanese or in Japanese text. If using Romanisation, follow the Modified Hepburn Romanization System and don't include long vowels. For example, type in "benkyo" rather than "benkyou" or "benkyoo". For more information, check the Hepburn Romanization chart (this will open in a new window).
• use a keyword search for preference.
• type in Japanese characters.

There are more specific search tips under each of the sections of this guide. 

Core Arts and Humanities databases (try these first):

The databases below are multidisciplinary so you can expect lots of results from different subject areas.

Japanese Studies-specific journal databases:

For more focused results try searching in one of these subject-specific databases.

Finding articles in Japanese

It is rare to find full text articles in Japanese. The best way to obtain articles is to search the following indexes; please note that the full-text may not be available for all articles. If a full-text link is not included, you may be able to request the article via Inter-Library Loan (this will open in a new window). Please type in Romanization for the Japanese language input details.

Why are there so few full text Japanese articles online?

Good question! It is possibly because the Japanese publishing industry is very conservative. There is more open sharing in academia, primarily science and technology fields but it is still nowhere near as open as the Western publishing industries. You can start your search by visiting CiNii Articles, which offers a useful index of academic papers with some available as full-text.

Print journals

The library also holds Japanese periodicals (or journals) in print as part of the East Asian Collection at the ERC, including:

Browse eJournals on Browzine:

Click on the button below to view a selection of online Japanese Studies eJournals that the Library holds (this will open in a new window). For a complete list of eJournals please visit our A-Z eJournals page.

Browse Japanese Studies eJournals

The Library Catalogue can help you find books

To find books on a particular subject, use a keyword search on the Library Catalogue. For example:

Keyword searching often retrieves a large number of results. These four techniques can help you focus your search:

The video below (3:47 mins) explains how you can use these advanced search techniques to quickly find relevant books and ebooks in the catalogue:

Looking for a book we don't have or is not on our shelves?

Japanese print books in the General East Asian Collection

Japanese language materials are spread over several libraries, and most are kept in the Rare East Asian Collection (consists of Chinese and Japanese language materials ranging from the 17th century to the 21st century) and the General East Asian Collection (consists of both print and electronic research materials in Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages). The General East Asian Collection mainly covers the areas of arts and humanities, social sciences and architectural history. Print materials within the General East Asian Collection are kept on level 2 & 3 of the Eastern Resource Centre (ERC) Library.

Visit the East Asian Collection

The Rare East Asian Collection

The Rare East Asian Collection houses more than 20,000 volumes of titles in Chinese and Japanese languages ranging from the 17th century to the 21st century.

Collection items can be requested for viewing in the Special Collections Reading Room at Baillieu Library, Level 3. 

Primary source databases

You can find relevant information and resources for your research on the websites of professional organisations and bodies, institutes, NGOs, government departments, etc.

This guide gives a few suggestions to get you started and to give you an idea what to look for. It is by no means comprehensive. If you are a coursework student, check your LMS to see if your lecturer has provided website recommendations.

Tip: if you want to limit your Google search results to organisational, governmental, or educational websites, use Google's advanced search option to limit the site or domains to .org, .gov, .edu. 

Japanese Studies Associations

Libraries and other associations

Need help with your referencing? Click on the button below:

Visit the Re:Cite guide to referencing

How to reference Japanese resources

There are some standard principles for referencing Japanese language resources, whichever referencing style you might be asked to use. The following examples will be based on the APA referencing style, which is most commonly used style in Arts and Humanities studies. You can get further help by contacting your subject librarian.

Learn how reference management software can help you with referencing:

Visit the Getting Started with Reference Management guide

Click the link below to view a list of available resources for the JAPN20009/30010 classes:

Contact your subject librarian

Xiaoju Liu

Senior Librarian, Chinese & Asian Studies

xiaoju.liu@unimelb.edu.au

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