On this page we will collect databases which are not necessarily connected to any particular library or archive which provide useful information about East Asia. This might include citation indexes, databases of historical documents, used book store searches, government databases, or topical databases. Please keep in mind that links to individual archive, library, museum etc. databases can be usually be found on the individual entries for those institutions and should not be listed here.
China
Taiwan
Korea
Korean Movie Database (KMDb)
Korean Name: 한국영화 데이터베이스
Description: Excellent online collection of information on Korean movies old and new. Detailed information about each movie, often including movie synopsis. Also shows which Korean Film Archive reference libraries have copies of the scripts of the movies. English information also available for movies.
Koreafilm.org
Description: Fantastic collection of reviews of Korean films with frequent new additions.
Japan
Also see individual library and archive entries for links to their search pages. Japan Index
CiNii Citation Information by NII
Japanese Name: CiNii 論文情報ナビゲータ
Description: A Japanese journal citation index with some pay-per-download features. The National Diet Library also offers journal citation searches.
Kosho Used Book Search
Japanese Name: 古書:日本の古本屋
Description: The most important one-stop location for ordering used books in Japan. Shipment internationally is sometimes possible but payment is often difficult unless you have an account in Japan and can transfer the money.
Japanese Diet Proceedings Database
Japanese Name: 国会会議録検索システム
Description: This searchable database, associated with the National Diet Library searches proceedings from the Diet starting May of 1947. Use the old form of Kanji characters when searching older Diet records for best results.
Japanese Historical Text Initiative
Description: "The Japanese Historical Text Initiative (JHTI) is a rapidly expanding database made up of historical texts written during the last 1292 years. The original version of every paragraph in every text is cross-tagged with its English translation, making it possible for any researcher to see, on the same screen, both the original and English translation of any word or phrase appearing in any JHTI text."
Japan Movie Database
Description: Set your browser's encoding to Shift-JIS as the website has not set the encoding for the page (I have contacted the webmaster about this).
Modern Digital Library
Japanese Name: 近代デジタルライブラリー
Description: This search engine at the National Diet Library allows you to search the libraries Meiji collection of books, magazines, etc. and even their tables of contents. Some Taisho period materials no longer protected by copyright also available. Full text can be viewed as JPEG or, via a Windows only plug-in JPEG 2000 files. See their pamphlet here for more information on its contents.
NACSIS Web Cat
Description: Searching for books in this database will show publication information for an entry and list which libraries in Japan have copies of the book. These are also linked to reference about the library and that library's web page. See also the Webcat Plus.
Nichigai Web Service
Description: Subscription only service allowing the search of Japanese periodicals.
The Prange Magazine Database
Japanese Name:占領期雑誌事情データベース
Description: The Prange database of early postwar magazines and newspapers is found at the University of Maryland and microfiche/microfilm of the collection is housed in select other locations such as Harvard and Tokyo's National Diet Library. This online database allows you to search for titles, authors, and occasionally other limited information for its entire magazine collection from 1945-1949 or so.
The World and Japan Database Project
Description: Professor Tanaka Akihiko of Tokyo University is hosting a number of databases, including A Chronology of the 20th Century where you can search for details of events in this century, the Foreign Policy of Asia-Pacific Countries, Post WWII Japanese Politics and Diplomacy containing basic documents, and Abbreviations for International Relations.
Union List of Japanese Serials and Newspapers
Description: A searchable list of periodicals held in North American University libraries.
Also see Other Websites, Bibliographies, and Link Collections as there may be some overlap.
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