Digitized Archive 1879-1999Keyword SearchHow to use

About Search

The menu is designed for those wishing to retrace past news and do historical searches.

In addition to publication date and title, it is also possible to categorize searches based on names, places, and topical keywords. An image of the actual page from the time is viewable via a PDF file.

  • [Meiji/Taisho], [Showa (Pre-World War II)] are optional contents for users of Asahi Shimbun Cross-Search.

Keyword

Keyword

In the "Compressed Edition 1945〜1984", certain keywords attached to article's headline and article itself are used to conduct a search. A search for a particular word or a term from a particular article is not possible.
A search is simply conducted by putting in a desirable word and a date of issue. Also, you could modify a search by multiple conditions such as such as using "categorize" in the "search option."
When you have more than two words for a search, insert a space between the two words, so articles in which contain those words will appear as the search result.
Also, you could press "AND" "OR" "NOT" buttons after each word, then signs "AND" "OR" "NOT" will appear in the search window respectively. Those signs would also help narrow down your search.

Proceed to Search

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

Articles/Advertisements

It is possible to select article search and advertisement search.

Searching with Chinese character variants

It is possible to search with notations, including Chinese character variants, contracted sounds, double consonants, and middle points (・).

  • Chinese character variants here refer to character forms which differ from the usual form. This can include differences between newly created characters and old characters, personal names and place names.
    Searching 沢田 (Sahada) returns both 沢田 (Sahada) and 澤田 (Sawada).
    This eliminates the need to search with the OR operator (沢田+澤田).
    (Example)沢(Saha)—澤(Sawa)、島(Shima)—嶋(Shima)、国(Kuni)—國(Kuni)
  • Searches which incorporate contracted sounds and double consonants such as 「ぁ」(Ah) and 「あ」(Ah) will return both results. For example a search on キャッツ (Kyattsu) returns both キャッツ (Kyattsu) andキヤツツ (Kyatsu).
  • Searches which include notation such as middle points (・) when searching on words of foreign origin or foreign names return results both with and without the notation.
    (Example)
    John・F・Kennedy will also return John F Kennedy
    World・Cup will also return World Cup

Searches including synonyms

It is possible to do searches with synonyms.

  • Synonyms include terms that have the same meaning yet are written differently, for example America- United States of America, 百貨店 (hyakaten) and デパート(department store), 五輪 (gorin) and オリンピック (Olympics). A search on 五輪 "gorin" returns results containing both 五輪 "gorin" or オリンピック "Olympics". In addition, abbreviations for terms appearing in newspaper articles such as "Japan Fair Trade Commission" and "JFTC" are also taken into account.

Clear

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

Date of Issue

It is possible to designate the date by clicking on the "Date" box.
By checking "From" , "To" and "Only" boxes, you can limit the search date.

Date Search

It is possible to search based on date.
At the present time, the Meiji/Taisho (1879-1926) database and Showa (Pre-World War II 1926-1945) database are optional services.

From the Meiji/Taisho (1879-1926) database it is possible to do keyword searches of all articles and advertisements from the Tokyo headquarters edition.
From the Osaka headquarters edition, it is possible to do keyword searches on articles and advertisements from the inaugural issue of January 25, year 12 of the Meiji era (1879) until July 10, year 21 of Meiji (1888), as well as from more than 2000 important articles selected from the Meiji and Taisho era.

For all other searches on the Osaka headquarters edition, it is possible to search and browse by date on images of the newspaper. From the 1926-1945 (Showa Pre-World War II Database) and 1945-1989 (Showa Post-World War II Database) ,1989-1999(Heisei Database), only searches designating a date will return results from the Osaka headquarters edition news page images.

About Meiji/Taisho News Page Database(Japanese Only)

Issuing company

The default setting is that issuing companies 'Tokyo' and 'Osaka' ,'Seibu','Nagoya','Hokkaido' are checked, with articles from both those issuing companies being searched.
For example, if 'Osaka','Seibu','Nagoya','Hokkaido' is unchecked, only those articles from the Tokyo headquarters edition will be searched.

Morning/Evening Editions

The default setting is that the 'Morning edition', 'Evening edition', 'Extra edition', 'Appendixes' and 'Supplement' are all checked, and all are searched.
By unchecking, a search of the 'Morning edition' only, or the 'Extra edition' only, etc. can be specified.

Chronological Table Reference

Important news events from history are viewable on the chronological table.
Keywords on the chronological table become search keywords when clicked.

Historical Keyword Reference

Important news events from history are viewable by keyword.
It is possible to view based on 50-character Japanese syllabary, field and personal name.
Keywords become search keywords when clicked.

Date Search help

This is a help page for how to use the "Date Search" function.

Western year--Nengo (Era) year conversion table

This is a year-by-year conversion table between Japanese nengo (era) years and western years.

(Example)
Western year 1964
Nengo (Era) year Showa 39

Search Scope

You could choose three different categories to narrow down your search. They are: "headlines and keyword", "headline" and "headlines, keyword, and category." In the original settings, "headlines and keyword" is applied.

Category

In order to use this function, you must choose "headlines, keyword, and category" to conduct the search. When you click "Specify" button, small window will appear in the search window. You could either choose from "major category" and "medium category."
By ticking the square of the category, and press "and" "or" or "not" button, the selected category will be entered into the search box.

List

  • Number of headlines

    You could choose the number of headlines shown on a single page between 50 to 100. The original setting is 50 headlines
  • Sorting

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

For inquiries and questions

The Asahi Shimbun Database Support