Library

Collections

Currently the library has a collection of monographs of approximately 20,000 volumes, supplemented by periodicals of about 18,400 volumes (390 journals). It holds a comprehensive and interdisciplinary inventory of German-language literature about Japan and materials on German-Japanese relations. Due to limited space and because of our close proximity to major public libraries, the focus of our collection has shifted towards rare materials such as the so-called Bandō collection with primary sources on German POWs held captive in Japan during World War I. Where possible these rare materials are made available online.

In 2019 the Japanese Ministry of Education recognized the library of the DIJ as a partner library of the National Diet Library with permission to duplicate library materials and access to the NDL’s Digitized Contents Transmission Service. Consequently, the library now has online access to over two million digitized materials in the NDL Digital Collections as well. In addition to this, the library performs important services to support the institute’s research. In particular, the library acquires literature relevant to current projects and ensures access to digital journals.

All holdings can be searched via the DIJ OPAC and via the Japanese union catalogue CiNii. The library is a member of the Association of Special Libraries in Japan (Senmon Toshokan Kyōgikai), and participates in the domestic inter-library loan system.

Terms of usage

• The use of the library is by prior arrangement only. External users are kindly asked to register by telephone or e-mail.
• The DIJ Library is a non-lending library, but it is possible to make photocopies.
• Nearly all the holdings are accessible in open shelves.
• In order to use off–prints (book numbers BS and CS), rare books (designated as “sekr.” in the OPAC) or CDs/DVDs (book numbers M) please contact the librarian.
• Books designated for the fellows’ research projects (book numbers W) are not accessible to the public.

Shelving and OPAC

• Reference books are arranged according to the Nippon Decimal Classification (NDC), whereas the central holdings are shelved by order of accession.
• All holdings can be searched in the DIJ OPAC (online public access catalogue) via http://dijbib.dijtokyo.org.
• In the DIJ OPAC not only books and periodicals are catalogued, but also individual articles from these books and periodicals can be searched.

Holdings

• Books: 20,181 volumes (among these are 1058 off-prints)
• Periodicals: 18,442 volumes
• Periodicals: 390 journals (among these 82 current subscriptions)

(as of November 2021)

Bandō Collection – Catalogue and Virtual Exhibition (available in German and Japanese)

http://bando.dijtokyo.org

Please note: the collection has been on deposit in the East Asia Department of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-PK since the end of 2021 where it will be re-digitized (see also “Bandō-Sammlung des DIJ nun in Berlin”, Crossasia-Blog, 30 March 2022, in German)

After the fall of the German colony of Tsingtao (China), approximately 1,000 Germans were interned in the Bandō prisoner-of-war camp from 1917 to 1920. Thanks to the goodwill of the Japanese POW camp’s administration, the prisoners were able to pursue a large variety of cultural activities. It is almost as if there was a German town in the middle of Japan – a town with several orchestras, sports clubs, restaurants, a bowling centre, and a bakery. The DIJ Library holds a large collection of original material from Bandō and from other POW camps such as Kurume, Marugame, Narashino, and Tokushima. The collection comprises journals, brochures, maps, lecture texts, theatre and concert programmes (all printed with the camp’s printing press), post cards, and photographs. As part of the initiative “Germany in Japan 2005/2006” the collection was presented to the public for the first time. The virtual exhibition introduces various aspects of life at the Bandō POW camp. All materials can be searched via the catalogue database. A large number of documents can be viewed as digital pictures that can be magnified.

Please direct all inquiries regarding this collection to the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin where the materials are deposited (Ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de).

Cooperation

The DIJ Library is a regular member of the Japan Special Libraries Association (Senmon Toshokan Kyōgikai) and closely cooperates with various Japanese libraries, but especially the libraries of the universities Waseda (Waseda Daigaku Toshokan), Sophia (Jōchi Daigaku Toshokan) and Hōsei (Hōsei Daigaku Toshokan). Since 1993 the DIJ Library has been participating in the online cataloging system provided by the National Institute of Informatics (NII, Kokuritsu Jōhōgaku Kenkyūjo, which was called until March 2000: National Center for Science Information Systems, NACSIS, Gakujutsu Jōhō Sentā). The Japanese union catalogue CiNii can be searched in Japanese and English, including in Kanji (Chinese characters), in the two Japanese syllabaries (Katakana and Hiragana) and in the Latin script (Rōmaji).