List of archives in Japan

[2] Archive-like facilities and repositories for official documents known as Kan no Fudono (官文殿) existed in the Asuka period, while the Shōsōin's holdings include over 11,000 paper documents (文書, monjo).

[1] The post-war period of Occupation saw the passing of the Library Act (1950) and Museum Act (1951); also in 1951, by ministerial decree, the Ministry of Education set up its Repository for Historical Documents (文部省史料館, shiryōkan) to collect old documents (古文書, komonjo) and records, the nucleus of the Department of Historical Documents at the National Institute of Japanese Literature.

[1][3] 1959 saw establishment of the Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives (山口県文書館, Yamaguchi-ken Monjo-kan), the country's first dedicated archival institution;[1][4] from the outset it collected public administrative and governmental records (公文書, kōmonjo) as well as old documents (古文書, komonjo).

[1] By the end of the 1970s there were fifteen archives at the national, prefectural, and city levels.

[5][6] Entering into force in June the following year, the first of its seven articles stresses the "importance of preserving and providing for use public records and archives as historical materials.