Research Help
Finding Japanese Books
To find Japanese books and e-books, consult the UBC Library catalogue first. This is the easiest way to access UBC's Japanese book collections even though not all the e-book titles have a record in our catalogue. (To search all e-book titles, consult the e-book section of the Japanese Studies Resources guide.) The Library catalogue search can also be done on the Library home page through the Books & Media tab.
- SummonSummon is a search engine that provides a general starting point to find the majority of UBC Library's collections - including books, ebooks, scholarly journals and articles, newspaper articles, dissertations and theses, videos, images, maps, manuscripts, music scores, digitized items and more.
- WorldCatThe world's largest library catalogue, containing records from OCLC member libraries from around the world, including the National Diet Library and Keio and Waseda University libraries.
Generally, use this site to locate a book for InterLibrary Loan request. - NDL Online 国立国会図書館オンラインSearch for library materials and digital contents at the National Diet Library.
- NDL Search 国立国会図書館サーチAn integrated search service of catalogues and digital archives including libraries, archives, academic institutes, and the National Diet Library.
Licensed eBooks
If you need library material that the library does not currently license in electronic format, or only has in print, please send a request to the Japanese Studies Librarian. If the requested material is for a course, please include your name, faculty, course number, and date by which the material is needed.
The library is working to source electronic versions of print materials. The Japanese e-books are available on the following three commercial platforms.
Tip: Not all e-book titles are listed in our library catalogue. For complete searching, please consult Maruzen eBook Library, Kinoden, and EBSCO (limit language to Japanese) individually.
- Maruzen eBook LibraryOffers one of the largest collections of Japanese academic e-books. To search for titles in their collection, choose the "すべてのタイトルから検索" option on top of the search box.
If you would like an ebook title to be purchased, please email library.orders@ubc.ca or the Japanese Studies Librarian at tomoko.kitayama@ubc.ca.
New titles available for purchase:
- KinoDen: Kinokuniya Digital LibraryA cloud-based digital library service, KinoDen, Kinokuniya Digital Library offers multidisciplinary ebook selections from Japanese academic publishers.
If you would like an ebook title to be purchased, please email library.orders@ubc.ca or the Japanese Studies Librarian at tomoko.kitayama@ubc.ca. - eBooks @ EBSCOhostLimit the language to Japanese in the advanced search to obtain the list of available titles. We have 154 titles available in Japanese language, essays, drama, and history.
- JapanKnowledge Lib (in Japanese) ジャパンナレッジA Japanese multi-purpose database including many reference resources and electronic books.
Remember to log out.
Available e-book titles on JapanKnowledge:
- Tōyō bunko 東洋文庫 (select titles)
- Shinpen Nihon koten bungaku zenshū 新編 日本古典文学全集
- Shinpen Kokka taikan 新編国歌大観
- Kadokawa Nihon chimei daijiten 角川日本地名大辞典
- Koji ruien 故事類苑
- Edo meisho zue 江戸名所図会
- Gunsho ruijū 群書類従
- Zoku zoku Gunsho ruijū 続々群書類従
- Bungei shunjū archives 文藝春秋アーカイブズ (1923-1950)
- Bunko Kuseju 文庫クセジュ (select titles)
- Shūkan Ekonomisuto 週刊エコノミスト (current issues only--from January of the previous year)
- Heisei Nippon seikatsu benrichō 平成ニッポン生活便利帳
Open Access eBooks
- Aozora Bunko 青空文庫A digital library containing almost 19,000 titles of freely accessible Japanese e-books from the public domain as well as works made openly available by the author.
- National Diet Library Digital Collections 国立国会図書館デジタルコレクションChoose "Books" and limit search to "Available Online" for open access materials.
- Japanese Text InitativeProvides web texts of classical Japanese literature in Japanese characters and is intended for English-speaking scholars and students. Where possible, the Japanese texts are accompanied by English translations.
- Project Gutenberg (Japanese language materials)Several dozens of mostly Japanese classical literary works are available.
Text Databases
- Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei Honbun Dētabēsu 日本古典文学大系本文データベースFull-text searchable database containing all 102 volumes (556 literary titles) of Nihon koten bungaku taikei 日本古典文学大系 (旧版), originally published in 1957-1967 by Iwanami Shoten.