The National Archives of Japan（NAJ）is an organization for preserving historical records and archives transferred from state organs, and providing them for public use. In 2001, the National Archives of Japan formally became an incorporated administrative agency, and the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records was opened under the NAJ. In April 2011, the Public Records and Archives Management Act（Act No. 66 of July 1, 2009）came into effect, which started the new management system under the law.

This paper will introduce efforts in digital archiving at the National Archives of Japan, including the basic concepts and policy direction, the“Digital Archives”that make it possible to access our holdings via the Internet, and the“Electronic Records Archives of Japan”that is our solution for“born digital．”

In August, 2009, NHK established its“War Testimony Archives”for the purpose of publishing the personal experience of war（http://www.nhk.or.jp/shogenarchives/）．At the site there are approximately 600 recorded recollections of people both in Japan and abroad who were willing to pass on what they remembered. They were gathered by means of NHK interviews, along with related material, and are available to the public. As of August 2011, 600 testimonials had been uploaded. NHK is planning to increase the number of interviews from 20 to 30 per month, ultimately gathering 1,000 testimonies for the archive by the summer of 2012.

NHK started the“War Testimony Project”in 2007. It aims to produce“Recorded Testimonies: The Soldiers’War，”a monthly program for the BS Hi­Vision channel（currently BS Premium），then to generate different and longer testimonial videos from the collected interviews for release on the web.

Over 60 years have passed since the end of the Pacific War. This is our attempt to examine the challenge faced by our society as to how to pass down the experience of conflict, and, as a public broadcasting organization, how to provide footage both on television and the Internet. Atthebeginningtheproject,weset aside a year before opening the site in order to debate and examine the many issues involved in setting it up,such as the way of presenting war testimonials on the web, site structure, and necessary contextual content for comprehension of the testimonials. The site has now been running for two years. We will be monitoring remaining problems by examining the production process, structure of the archives, and how the site has been utilized up to now.

The concept “Digital Archives” emerged and became current about fifteen years ago．Initially，the imaging of cultural assets of great value was the main objective．They were recorded using high­level multimedia digital technology．Furthermore，as regards regional promotion，digital archives were applied to defining the identity of each region in Japan．While several major projects found themselves unable to continue，other digital archives continue and have developed and acquired close and strong relations with archival science，relations which were not so central in earlier days．As for archival science，nowadays digital recording and network access are essential．In this paper，that process is described with examples while several potential problems are raised in historical perspective．

This article examines the forest­resource approval system of the Japanese government in colonial Korea．Its purpose is to analyze the unequally distributed remaining public records as they were generated in imperial Japan and colonial Korea．As a result，the decision-making authority on laws，budget control and personnel affairs was the responsibility of the Japanese Cabinet and it became clear that those important policies also had to gain approval from the Emperor．As a result，all the originals of the important records are preserved at the National Archives of Japan，while the records related to forest resources held in the National Archives of Korea are merely records of executive action．In other words，one reason why the records of the Government General in Korea remain unequally distributed between Japan and Korea was the war，especially their resulting destruction or dispersal by the Japanese at the time of their withdrawal．However，as indicated already，an even more fundamental reason can be identified –the colonial ratification system．