“Gekijo” is an ambiguous Japanese word whose concept was borrowed from “theatre”, “teatro”, “théâtre”, etc. of Western cultures, which is used to express a particular institution type alongside those of “hakubutsukan (museum)”, “toshokan (library)”, “byoin (hospital)”, etc.. The problem with its ambiguity can be seen at two different levels: the level of the institution type itself, and that of individual institutions belonging to the institution type. The purpose of this study is to clarify the concept of the word as a technical term and this paper deals with the problem at the former level mentioned above.
