Message in Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Japan Foundation Awards

Since it was established in 1927, the Meiji Shinbun Zasshi Bunko (the Center for Modern Japanese Legal and Political Documents), a facility of our Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, has continued to collect newspapers and magazines from the Meiji period to the early Showa period, and provided research data for researchers throughout the world, exhibits, broadcasts, and publications. The facility boasts the largest collection of newspapers and magazines published in Japan during the Meiji and Taisho periods. In recognition of the contribution of the Bunko collection to research exchange around the world, the facility was awarded the Japan Foundation Award in 1977. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude once again.

As of April 2023, the collection of the Bunko consisted of 2,112 different newspapers and 8,185 different magazines. Major renovations and earthquake proofing construction, the first such since the facility was founded, were completed in fiscal 2021, significantly improving the storage environment of the collection and the access thereof to users. The original documents are stored in boxes made from neutral paper and kept in a stable environment with 24-hour air conditioning. Furthermore, to preserve deteriorating documents, we actively produce microfilm copies, reproduce older microfilms, and carry out digitalization. Digitized materials were released in fiscal 2021 as the newspaper special edition collection to great acclaim as part of the University of Tokyo Digital Archives Project. We also work with organizations outside the University, including providing documents to the Union Catalogue Database of Japanese Texts of the National Institute of Japanese Literature and to the Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

The important elements of international exchange are, for deep and solid mutual understanding, rather than simply holding one-off events, to achieve continuity that is steadily passed on to the next generation, and inclusion across diverse domains and people, including areas of basic research. I wish to pay tribute to the Japan Foundation for its contribution to such international exchange over many years, and to express my wish that the Foundation continue to lead the domain of international exchange. And I would like to express, with the warm encouragement and expectation shown to us through the Japan Foundation Award, the intent of the Bunko to continue to contribute to the development of international exchange in the area of basic research.

YAMAMOTO Ryuji
Dean of the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics
and Director of the Center for Modern Japanese Legal and Political Documents,
The University of Tokyo

(Original text in Japanese)

Awards and Special Prizes: Recipients List 1973 - 1995