The Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan

Citation

Millard, D. (2002), "The Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan", Online Information Review, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 433-433. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2002.26.6.433.12

The Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan has been released over the last several years under varying titles in print, CD‐ROM and now finally on the Web. In an attempt to address the lack of current information available about Japan’s politics, government, economics and culture, Kodansha has released their newly updated 2002 encyclopaedia with new content and search functions. Over 11,000 entries provide details on Japan’s history, geography, literature, religion, fine arts and performing arts. The online encyclopaedia is based on the 1993 Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia with updates on events and notable people in the last decade. Articles range from 50 to over 4,000 words in length and have been written by an outstanding group of some 1,400 international scholars and Japanese specialists.

The encyclopaedia is searchable through a basic article search function, which searches and retrieves any matches on headings in the encyclopaedia. This basic search finds a topic as long as it is significant enough to include in the headings of an entry. The search results in a relevance‐ranked list with links to the actual article. In turn, the actual article provides links to related images and related articles in a drop‐down menu on the left navigation bar. The articles are well written but, unfortunately, unsigned and without references. Both these additional features would benefit the researcher.

A full text search function is also available to allow users to search for any term across all articles. Boolean logic is also available for focusing search results. While the search box is a little limited in size, the advanced search works fine from this screen. Two other alternatives are available from the advanced search screens: topic search and image search. Topic searching allows users to search for a keyword within a certain broad subject heading such as architecture, economy or folklore. Over 30 broad topic categories are provided for narrowing a search into the correct area within the encyclopedia. With over 2000 images in the database, the image search feature allows quick access to the images from their captions or descriptions. Finally, a full suite of browse options is provided, including articles a‐z, portraits a‐z, articles by topic a‐z, images by topic a‐z, and regions on a map of Japan. However, at the time of review, the articles and images by topic did not seem to be functioning properly.

Output of articles from the encyclopaedia is only available as a screen printout. Unfortunately, the screen is best viewed using 800 × 600 resolution and, when printing, the right‐hand margin cuts out some of the text of the article. Having a printer‐friendly option would be a welcome addition to the product. While this encyclopaedia does have a few glitches in its presentation and searching capabilities, the actual content of the product outweighs any of these problems. I recommend this product to institutions with either Japanese or international studies.

This review was first published in Reference Reviews Volume 16 Number 6 2002.