Since Law Concerning Access to Information Held by Incorporated Administrative Agencies, Etc. was established in 2001, it has been claimed that National University Corporations have tried to manage their official documents appropriately. Nevertheless, their older organizational documents or their cultural materials may have disappeared, the reason being that most National Universities did not have their own archives, and may have disposed of documents and other records without asking whether some of them should be preserved for historical purposes. Personal information, which is closed but may have had historical or academic value may have been destroyed without having been disclosed. This article focuses on theses. We should question whether they could be used or disclosed at those universities at present or in the future. First, we explain how some universities deal with theses under the law, secondly, we consider what kind of personal information may be closed and when it might be opened, and thirdly, we discuss copyright in those officially held documents that are owned by individuals.

Preserved at the National Institute of Japanese Literature is a group of records titled So-an, a series among the Hachisuka family papers. They consist of copy letters written by the successive feudal lords of the Hachisuka family, most during the early Edo period. The letters written by the first three lords were particularly important to their successors as they were drawn upon as precedents. Their order was therefore carefully preserved. However, the So-an went through a major reprocessing during the era of the Tempo era (1830-44) after control had gradually been lost: the original date of each letter was clarified; the original order restored, and copies made. The present physical order of the So-an is that created during this reprocessing. The wrapping papers and labels attached at that time are still well preserved. This article analyses the nature of the So-an and draws attention to the Tempo era re-imposition of the original order by means of a detailed analysis of their dating. The So-an are a useful and important source for the study of politics and the social life of Daimyo in the early Edo period.