InfoGuides: Japanese Language and Literature: Find Articles

Key Databases

The following databases are suggested for researching Japanese literary criticism.

Academic Search Complete
- This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text, peer-reviewed journals, as well as indexing and abstracts for monographs, reports, and conference proceedings. Features content going back as far as 1887.
View a tutorial on this database here.
Book Review Digest Plus
Indexes reviews of current fiction and non-fiction, and provides review excerpts and over 100,000 full text reviews. Every book in Book Review Digest appears with all of its reviews together.
View a tutorial on this database here.
Humanities International Complete
- This link opens in a new window
Provides citations and abstracts for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems, fiction, photographs, paintings and illustrations. Humanities International completes offers indexing for over 2,300 journals, books and other publications, with full-text for over 1,200 of them.
View a tutorial on this database here.
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
Articles on literary critics, movements, countries and historical periods enhanced by capabilities found only in an electronic version. Includes more than 240 alphabetically arranged entries.
View a tutorial on this database here.
JSTOR
Collection of core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences digitized in most cases back to the first date of issue. Includes selected books, primary sources and other materials for academic work.
View a tutorial on this database here.
Literature Resource Center
- This link opens in a new window
Full-text biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of more than 120,000 writers from a variety of periods and disciplines.
MLA International Bibliography
- This link opens in a new window
Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the MLA International Bibliography is the definitive index for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film, covering scholarly publications from the early 20th century to the present. View a tutorial on this database here.
Project MUSE
- This link opens in a new window
Provides digital humanities and social science content for the scholarly community. Offers full-text versions of scholarly journals and books from many of the world's university presses and scholarly societies. View a tutorial on this database here.

Key Journals

Asian Ethnology
Asian Ethnology is an open access semi-annual, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the promotion of research on the peoples and cultures of Asia. It was first published in 1942 at the Catholic University of Peking as Folklore Studies and subsequently at Nanzan University, where from 1963 to 2007 it was known as Asian Folklore Studies.

Asian Ethnology presents formal essays and analyses, research reports, and critical book reviews relating to a wide range of topical categories
Asian Folklore Studies
The Journal focuses on specific aspects of folklore studies
Harvard journal of Asiatic studies
Founded in 1936 under the auspices of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (HJAS) has without interruption pursued its mission to disseminate original, outstanding research and book reviews on the humanities in Asia, focusing at present on the areas of China, Japan, Korea, and Inner Asia. As scholarship has evolved, so has this Journal, but always while holding constant its commitment to serve authors and readers alike through the careful selection and editing of its contents.
Japanese Language and Literature
Japanese Language and Literature is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by The Association of Teachers of Japanese. It was established in 1966 as the Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese, obtaining its current title in 2001.
Japan Forum
apan Forum, the leading European journal in the multidisciplinary field of Japanese Studies, publishes original research in subject areas ranging from archaeology, language, literature, philosophy and culture to history, economics, politics, international relations and law.
Journal of Japanese Studies
The Journal of Japanese Studies is the most influential journal dealing with research on Japan available in the English language
Mechademia
It is a peer-reviewed academic journal in English about Japanese popular culture products and fan practices. It is published by the University of Minnesota Press

Scholarly or Popular?

Scholarly articles

Lengthy; include references, footnotes or bibliographies
Author(s) report original research or experiments
Academic, professional readership
May be illustrated with graphs or charts
May not have color pictures or ads
Titles like "Journal of the" or "Journal for the"

Popular articles

Short, terse
Rarely footnoted
References seldom listed
Written by staff or freelancers
Inform, entertain general public
Glossy/color photographs, ads
Sold in stores, newsstands, etc