National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics Bibliographic Database of Japanese Language Research Search

Database overview: About the “Bibliographic Database of Research on Japanese Language and Japanese Language Education”

The “Bibliographic Database of Research on Japanese Language and Japanese Language Education” is a database of material related to Japanese language and Japanese language education. Cataloguing books and articles on these topics that have been published from 1950 to the present, at this point, December 2025, the total number of catalogued items amounts to approximately 300,310 items. As a collection of research materials on specific fields that covers a long span of years, the database, in addition to having bibliographic information on the texts, is characterized by the annotation of information on the field of study which indicates the content of each text. Furthermore, links have been added for accessing the texts of those articles available on the Web through the repositories of universities and other academic institutions, numbering, as of December 2025, a total of about 49,229 links.

１．Types of data and numbers of items

The data catalogued is broadly divided into an Article Database and a Book Database, with the data from the Article Database being further divided into ① Articles from Journals and ② Articles from Collections of papers.

	Article Database	249,581 items
①	Articles from Journals	214,257 items	(articles published in academic journals, and university bulletins and serials)
②	Articles from Collections of papers	35,324 items	(individual articles from collections of papers and from proceedings)
	Book Database	50,729 items
	Total	300,310 items

２．The Scope of the Collection

The data catalogued is collected from the Research Library of the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics. Almost all of the journals and books catalogued reside in the repository of the Research Library of the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL), but with regard to those items for which there are no holdings in the Research Library repository, a minus sign (”-”) is entered in the corresponding cell of the “Research Library request number” (「研究図書室請求記号」) column on the “Details screen”. The Research Library intakes yearly 791 journals and bulletins, and 1,643 books, with current holdings as of April 2025 amounting to 6,003 titles for bulletins and journals, and 165,497 books, and 84 e-journals, and 1,666 e-books.
Furthermore, the database has begun to enter articles that have been published for online journals. Data catalogued from online journals is indicated by “OJ” entered in the corresponding cell of the “Research Library request number” （「研究図書室請求記号」）column.

３．About the formation of the database and the data collection

The catalogue reflects the data in the following three journals; the "Japanese Language Studies Annual Survey and Bibliography" 『国語年鑑』(1954-2008), the"Japanese Language Education Annual Survey" 『日本語教育年鑑』(2000-2008), and the"Teaching Japanese as a Second Language: An Index to Journal Articles" 『日本語教育学会誌・機関誌掲載論文等文献一覧』(1980-1998) which were of late published by NINJAL.
Items from the"Japanese Language Studies Annual Survey and Bibliography" are generally works of"Journal,""Collections of papers" (except 1954-1956), and"Book," while items from the two journals on Japanese language education are generally works of"Journal" and"Book".
After the integration of the data from above-mentioned three journals in 2011, we subsequently add newly published items on"Journal,""Collections of papers," and"Book". Please note that while we have both "Keywords" and "Chapter title" fields after the data integration, there are cases where those fields are blank in the former data.

４．Methods for search

There are two search methods available: “Basic search” (「簡易検索」) and “Advanced search” (「詳細検索」). In the Basic search screen, string searches can be carried out over the categories of “Article author” (「論文著者名」), “Article title” (「論文名」), “Book editor/author” (「図書編著者名」), “Journal/book/Series title” (「誌名・書名・シリーズ」), “Keyword/Chapter title” (「キーワード・章タイトル」). For details on the organization of entries in bibliographic records, please refer to “Entries in bibliographic records” (「データ項目」).
In the Advanced search screen, searches can be carried out over each of the following categories: “Article author” (「論文著者名」), “Article title” (「論文名」), “Book editor/author” (「図書編著者名」), “Journal/book/Series title” (「誌名・書名・シリーズ」), “Publisher” (「発行」), “Publication year” (「発行年」),“Keyword/Chapter title” (「キーワード・章タイトル」), “Article ID” (「文献ID」), “Field” (「分野」), “Material ID” (「研究図書室資料ID」), “ISBN”, “ISBN・ISSN-L・ISSN Online”，” Place of publication”(「発行地域」),”Language” (「記述言語」）. For details on searching in an individual category, use the respective button for that category.

５．Displaying search results

The search results display screen offers both a “List screen” (「一覧表示画面」) and a “Details screen” (「詳細表示画面」). By clicking the heading for each column in the “List screen” the data can be sorted by descending order. For entries added within the last year, the year and month of update appear in the “update” (「更新」) column. In addition, by clicking the “No.” section for a given entry, the view switches to a “Details screen” where all the data for that entry is displayed. Printing for “Details screen” is enabled.

６．Entries in bibliographic records

The full inventory of categories for the database is listed below. Note that in the List screen, those categories with an asterisk are not displayed.

１．DB

Journal (雑誌) indicates academic journals and university bulletins; Collections of papers (論文集) indicates independent volumes that are collections of articles; Book (図書) indicates other independent volumes.

２．Article ID*

ID number for the bibliographic record

３．Research Library request number*

This is the request number for a bulletin, journal, or book in the holdings of the Research Library of the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics. Items that are not in the holdings are marked “ - ”.

４．Article author

This is the name of the author of the article. In the case of multiple authors, the names are concatenated by “ ; ”. All names appear in the order “Surname Given name,” and for names in the alphabet, a comma “ , ” follows the surname. Names for which the surname and given name cannot be verified are entered as they appear in the text.

５．Alternative form for article author*

An alternative form for article author (which may comprise a transliteration into the alphabet, for example) is entered if provided. If the entry for article author is specified in a search, the alternative form is included in the search.

６．Article title

This is the title of the article.

７．Alternative form for article title*

An alternative form for article title (which may comprise a transliteration into the alphabet, for example) is only entered if provided. If the entry for Article title is specified in a search, the alternative form is included in the search.

８．Book editor/author

This is the name of the editor or author of a book. In the case of multiple authors, the names are concatenated by “ ; ”. All names appear in the order “Surname Given name,” and for names in the alphabet, a comma “ , ” follows the surname. Names for which the surname and given name cannot be verified are entered as they appear in the text.

９．Alternative form for editor/author*

An alternative form for editor/author is entered if provided. If the entry for editor/author is specified in a search, the alternative form is included in the search.

１０．Journal/book title

This is the title of the bulletin, journal, or book in which the article is featured.

１１．Series

This is entered if the book title includes a series name.

１２．Alternative form for Journal/book title*

An alternative form for journal/book title is entered if provided. If the entry for journal/book title is specified in a search, the alternative form is included in the search.

１３．Volume number

This is the volume number of the bulletin or journal.

１４．Page numbers

These are the pages which the article occupies. For journals that are primarily written in vertical script, articles written in horizontal script are sometimes assigned page numbers in reverse order. For some older records no page numbers are assigned.

１５．Total number of pages*

This is the total number of pages of a book.

１６．Publisher

The university or publishing company issuing the bulletin, journal, or book is specified in this entry.

１７．Publication year

This is the year in which the bulletin, journal, or book was published.

１８．Place of publication

This field indicates the place of publication for bulletins, journals, or books. ISO 3166-1 country codes are used. If the place of publication cannot be determined, as in the case of online journals, multiple codes may be entered, or the code may be enclosed in brackets, such as [JP] or [US]. Items that are not in the holdings are marked “ - ”. For publications prior to 1993, no Place of publication are assigned.

１９．Language

The language in which the text is written has been recorded in this field. It corresponds to the language list provided in the OPAC of the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics. For details, please refer to the following information:

https://libgw.ninjal.ac.jp/opac/en/complexsearch

If the language of the entire text cannot be determined, multiple languages may be entered, or the code may be enclosed in brackets, such as [jpn] or [eng]. Items that are not in the holdings are marked “ - ”. For publications prior to 1993, no Language are assigned.

２０．Keywords

These are entered only if provided in the article. There are cases where, for articles having no keywords in the records produced by the collaborative project “Publication of a Comprehensive Catalogue of Research on Japanese Language Studies,” between the Society for the Study of Japanese Language and the National Language Research Institute, keywords have been provided by the author afterwards, and these are entered here..

２１．Chapter title/Table of contents

The chapter headings or table of contents is entered here. Secondary headings and subheadings such as 1-2. etc. are as a rule not entered. For records in the “Japanese Language Studies Annual Survey and Bibliography” up to and including 2009, and records in the “List of publications by the Society for Japanese Language Education,” this information is not entered.

２２．Fields

At present articles are assigned up to 3 main fields. Be aware that, depending on the year of cataloguing, there is some variation in assignments. For details, see “About fields.”

２３．Article author in Latin script (automatically generated)*

Only in the case where there is no alphabet spelling provided for the article author or alternative form for aritcle author, an automatically generated Kunreisiki spelling for the article author is entered.

２４．Book editor/author in Latin script (automatically generated)*

Only in the case where there is no alphabet spelling provided for the book editor/author or alternative form for editor/author, an automatically generated Kunreisiki spelling for the author’s name is entered.

２５．Material ID

This is the management ID for bulletins, magazines, and books owned by the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics Research Library. Management IDs for online journals begin with "J" for Japanese publications, "E" for Western publications, "K" for Korean publications, and "C" for Chinese publications.

２６．ISBN

A value to identify the book. I removed the hyphen and entered it as 13 digits.

２７．ISSN

A value to identify the magazine. I removed the hyphen and entered it as 8 digits.

２８．ISSN-L

A value to identify the magazine. I removed the hyphen and entered it as 8 digits.

２９．ISSN Online

A value to identify the magazine. I removed the hyphen and entered it as 8 digits. Provided in the online version.

Any special notes about the paper are entered here. If there is additional data in the appendix, a link to the relevant data is entered here.

３１．Update

Newly updated records are marked.

３２．(Link)

For records that have links to the full text (pdf) of the article in question, there is a “display text” button. From there the text can be accessed through a handle page. The specifications of the handle page depend on the institution in question.

７．About fields

In the data there is included field information about the content of the article or book. Please note that the style of entry may vary depending on when the entry was made. Currently entries for fields are up to 3 in principle, but prior to 2012 only 1 central field was entered. The categories for fields are listed below:

１．General research on Japanese language

Characteristics of Japanese language, Overview of Japanese language, History of research on Japanese language, etc.

２．History of the Japanese language

Genealogy of Japanese language, Diachronic research on Japanese language, Overview of modern Japanese, etc.

３．Phonology/Phonetics

Phonology, phonetics, accent, etc. Studies on the phonology of the various regional dialect of Japan are categorized under “Dialects.”

４．Characters and Orthography

Chinese characters, Kanadukai, Usage of characters, Theory of orthography, etc.

５．Lexicon and terminology

Lexicography, Word structure, Synonyms, Loan words, etc.

６．Grammar

Grammatical theory, Syntax, Modality, etc.

７．Genre and style

Genre studies, Rhetoric, Stylometry, etc.

８．Dialects

General theory of dialects, description of regional dialects, etc.

９．Japanese information processing

Corpora, Databases, Machine translation, etc. Topics in communication through the internet, digital media, etc. are categorized under “Communication.”

１０．Communication

Language contact, Language behavior, Sociolinguistics, etc.

１１．Mass communication

The language of television and newspapers, etc.

１２．Japanese language policy and language policy

Language policy, Script reform, Chinese characters designated for common use, etc.

１３．Japanese language education for native speakers

Education in Language Arts classes, Child language acquisition, etc.

１４．Japanese language education for non-native speakers

Pedagogy of Japanese language education, Materials, Praxis, Issues involving students and teachers, etc.

１５．Linguistics

General theories of language including Japanese, Psycholinguistics, Contrastive linguistics, etc.

１６．Resources

Indexes, Resources for Japanese language research, etc.

１７．Reviews

Review articles on Japanese language research, etc.

１８．Dictionaries

Encyclopedias, Dictionaries. Only “Book” is included in this field.

８．Links to the texts of articles

In cases where articles are made publicly available online by the repositories of universities and academic institutions, the database provides a link to the text of the article. Please access these texts through the “Text Display” (「本文表示」) button on the display page. The links go through a handle page. Be aware that the specifications of the handle page depend on the institution in question.
The publication information may differ from that of NINJAL academic repository, but there is no difference in the PDF of the paper text.

９．About the journals collected in the catalogue

For information about the inventory of journals collected in the catalogue, see the “List of collected journals” (「採録誌名一覧」). This list sets out the journals and bulletins that have been published from 1985, and indicates the year of publication of the most recently acquired item. In addition, for a given item, if there is at least 1 article with a link to the article text, a circle (“○”) will appear in the “PDF” column for that item.

１０．Downloading data

It is possible to download data for items selected from the List screen for a search result. The limit for a single download is data for 100 items. Please check off the selection buttons for the desired items and click “Download displayed records” (「表示データを書き出す」). Download is enabled for any of the following formats: BibTex, excel, csv (text).

１１．Conditions of use

The conditions of use for the “Bibliographic Database of Research on Japanese Language and Japanese Language Education” (「文献データベース」, hereafter “Bibliographic Database”) are as follows:

１. The copyright for the Bibliographic Database is reserved by the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics.
２. Parties desiring to use the Bibliographic Database with a motive of monetary profit must enter into agreement with the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics.