English-language News DatabaseHow to use

About Search

The Asahi Shimbun Company has just created a database of its English-language newspapers. You are able to perform a full-text search of articles published in the "The International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun (the IHT/Asahi)," and "AJW (Asia & Japan Watch)" dating back to April 2001.

Search Terms

Search Terms

  • When you have more than two keywords for a search, insert a space between the two words, then articles which contain those words will appear as the search result.
  • It is not case sensitive.
  • Please type using half-width characters.

Search

By clicking the button, a search will start. You could also hit the enter key on your keyboard.

Boolean Operators

You could search using boolean operators.

By clicking "Examples.," examples of boolean using "AND", "OR", "NOT" will be displayed
If you enter: You find records that contain:
water air Both the word "water" and the word "air"
water AND air Both the word "water" and the word "air"
water OR air Either the word "water" or the word "air" or both words
water NOT air The word "water" but not the word "air"

About a search expression

  • The priority of the search is NOT, AND, OR.
  • You can use parenthesis to prioritize search terms.
    Search terms entered inside parentheses are given higher priority than terms not in parentheses.
    For example: (cool OR warm) AND biz
  • Searching for phrases
    To match an exact phrase, enclose the entire phrase in double quotes.
    For example: "cool japan"
  • Searching with a stemming algorithm
    It is possible to search with a stemming algorithm. It is a function that it recognizes the stem of a word from a search word and searches including a conjugation and derivation form.
    For example:
    swim
    swims
    swimming
    swimmer

Object of the Search

You could choose from "In Headline" "In Text" "Keyword." When the database editorial department deems it necessary, it adds keywords to the database.

Clear

By clicking the button, all requests you had made in the previous search will be all cleared.

Specify Date

You could specify the date of issue.
Examples.
From January 1, 2011 until December 31, 2011 From: 20110101 To: 20111231
January 31, 2011 only From: 20110131 To: 20110131

  • You cannot search by only the date of issue. You have to enter a keyword or select "Category" or "Country."

Category

You could choose from 9 categories, such as "Asia," "Business," and "Sports."

Country

You could choose from countries, such as "Japan," "China," "South Korea," and "North Korea."

List

Number of Articles

You could choose the headlines of the search result to be listed on a single display between 10 to 20. The original setting is 20.

Sorting

You could arrange the sequence of the headlines. The original setting is the newest article to be shown on the top of the list. You could either choose the original setting or list the oldest headline available on the top of of the list.

For inquiries and questions

The Asahi Shimbun Database Support