2007 Volume 7 Pages 50-69
Modern archival systems did not develop in Japan between the Meiji and prewar Showa periods. However, some classes of archival materials from prefectural governments were transferred to their libraries and were opened to the public. Those materials include records generated by the preceding feudal lords and the formal records of administration compiled under the Dajokan government system of the early Meiji period. They were regarded as local history materials and local governments were aware of the potential embodied in them which could be used to acculturate their‘subjects．’The potential of the archives was selectively controlled.
At the same time, leading librarians gradually became aware of the need for the proper management of those materials. Backed up by professional library associations, they collected the noncurrent records of the contemporary prefectural governments as well as local history materials and argued that setting up prefectural libraries as“reference institutions for local administration”was a necessity. Having realized the “unique nature of archives，” they then went further in arguing that proper archival institutions should be set up. Yamaguchi Prefectural Library provides one of the best examples. As an outgrowth of the library service,it led to the establishment of the Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives after WWII, the first modern archive institution in Japan.
