It has greatly contributed to the development of Asian Studies through the acquisition of books and other source materials as well as the publication of research by Japanese scholars.

Presently, the library contains approximately 950,000 volumes which are cataloged linguistically according to Asian, Western and Japanese language materials.

[1] The Oriental Library had its beginnings in 1917 when Hisaya Iwasaki, former third President of the Mitsubishi Company, purchased the vast private collection of China-related publications of Australian adventurer, journalist, and Republic of China government adviser George Morrison.

After the purchase, he improved the collection by increasing the number of classical Chinese, Japanese, and Western language books by receiving advice from a bibliographer, Tunashiro Wada(和田 維四郎).

Hisaya Iwasaki stopped touching management after establishment, but continued financial support to promote collection and research.