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Japan, Music, Internet & Computer

Japan Links

Need resources on Japan? This is a selected list of links to information about Japan in English. (Not comprehensive - maybe a listing of some long players who have been providing Japan related information for some ten years, plus archival links to those found around year 2000)

Governmental and Public

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs - MoFA offeres detailed papers on its foreign policy, education programs, culture & life.
• Statistics Bureau of Japan is responsible for coordinating the statistical activities of different ministries and agencies, while conducting Japan's fundamental statistical censuses and surveys including the Population Census, the Establishment Census, the Labour Force Survey and the Family Income and Expenditure Survey.
• Ministry of Finance - several reports on their policy and propasals by councils
• Cabinet Office - inherits some resources form former Economic Planning Agency such as Economic and Fiscal Policy and Statistics.
• National Archives of Japan - an organization for receiving important official documents and records as historical materials, from various ministries and agencies and preserving them for long periods, offering them for perusal and exhibit, and undertaking research aimed at their effective practical use.
• Information and Communications Policy Site at Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications - official source about Japanese telecommunications and broadcastings. Many documents, white papers, reports and newsreleases.

Business and market

• Bank of Japan - statistics, reports on Japanese economy, govornor's speech etc. Rich information.
• Japan Economic Foundation - provides bi-monthly Economy, Culture & History JAPAN SPOTLIGHT (former Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry) and some METI or Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (former MITI) related information.
• Tokyo Stock Exchange - has basic info on Japanese stock market, including price index of the day (Java) and related statistics.
• NewsOnJapan.com provides daily news lines on Japan from several news soureces, as well as some useful online resources and shopping channels.

• Nikkei Net Interactive - Asia Web Guide - from business to government to nonprofit web sites in Japan and Asia, collected by Nikkei, all of which contain English information.
• JETRO (Japan External TRade Organization) has business, economic and trade related information. Archives of its publications are rich and useful.
• Foreign Press Cenrter / Japan provides rich information for those who interested in Japan, including journalists.

• Access to Japan was collection of contact points to more than 400 major Japanese companies, provided Keidanren until 2002 (archive).
• Toshokan Ryutsu Center provided data and information on books newly published in Japan in English until 2002 (archive).

Cultural and Social

• The Japanese Text Initiative is collaborative effort by the U. of Virginia to make texts of classical Japanese literature available on the World Wide Web. See Japanese traditional art of my homepage for more information.

• Joyo'96 - Initially focused on mastering the first grade kanji of the "Joyo", or General Use Characters as mandated by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Joyo96 is now one of the most popular resources on the Internet dealing with Japanese culture and language.
• Web Japan (former Japan Information Network by Japan Center for Intercultural Communication) provides information on Japan across many different genres including culture, sightseeing, society, history and nature. The content is provided primarily in English, but a portion of the site is multilingual.

• International Society for Educational Information, Inc. had been providing series of books, UNDERSTANDING JAPAN, and other useful information for mutual understanding among people until 2004 (archive).

Mega-lists

• Japan at Yahoo - and you get a substantial list of Japanese sites.
• JGuide - WWW Virtual Library - lists Internet-accessible information facilities .
• The JAPAN WEB GUIDE's FAQ of Japan claims to feature the500 best Web sites in Japan, categorized by topic.

• Japan Daruma was a very rich classified link list from entertainment to culture to business (archive)
• JAPAN's SEARCH ENGINES in English
  • mondou RCAAU - Discovery System for WWW Resources had worked until 2004 (archive)
  • Nihongo Yellow Pages had let you introduce your business to Japan, until 2001 (archive)

Some more interesting sites on Japan...

• My Name in Japanese at Eri Takase Artworks tells you how to spell your English name in Japnese characters. The site also provides many calligraphy and other artworks for you.
• Japan Travel and Living guide - its goal is to deliver comprehensive, up to date information on traveling and living in Japan, first-hand from Japan.
• Japan, my Japan! - a comprehensive link list on Japan, from culture & society to travel to literature. By Prof. Mitsuharu Matsuoka at Nagoya University, Japan.
• At JUN Japanese Gifts and Souvenirs, you can buy well selected Japanese unique gifts. Also, its Culture Pages provide some interesting information, from "Japanglish" (Japanese-English) to cultural calendar to fact book.

• gaijinweb.com - Guide To Japan had claimed to be your best friend in Japan, offering many articles on culture, travel, law etc. as well as discussion forums and classified ads, until 2001 (archive)

And...

Also this site includes some (bit old) information:

• Introduction to Japanese traditional art provides concise information and links
• Japan Opinion in Japan (1995-2003)
• Using Japanese language on your computer will help you to read Japanese resources.