(21 Jan 2026) The artificial intelligence ChatGPT earned perfect scores in nine subjects in this year’s unified university entrance examinations, marking its first full score, an AI venture said Tuesday. When LifePrompt Inc tested the generative AI chatbot for the weekend’s university exams, the chatbot’s latest version had an accuracy rate of 97 percent across…
(5 Jan 2026) With the December 31, 2025, retirement of Mr. YAMAJI Yasushi, Ms. KITO Junko has been named Deputy Director General of the National Diet Library, effective January 1, 2026. Since joining the National Diet Library in 1991, Ms. Kito has served as director general of the Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library,…
(23 Dec 2025) Japan has agreed to join Horizon Europe, becoming the biggest country yet to associate to the EU’s €93.5 billion research and innovation programme. The development confirms the EU’s emerging role as a leader in global science and technology cooperation. The deal, announced on December 22, is to be signed off officially in 2026, but…
(5 Dec 2025) In early November, STM CEO Caroline Sutton spent several days in Tokyo meeting with funders, government leaders, research agencies, and publishing groups — alongside delegates from STM’s Japan Chapter. As in last year’s visit, the conversations were productive, wide-ranging, and grounded in strong local partnerships. And while open science dominated the agenda in 2024, this year…
(4 Dec 2025) Springer Nature and OASE have signed a new agreement that expands open access publishing opportunities for institutions in Japan starting in 2026. The agreement will run from 2026 to 2028 and is intended to support universities and national research and development organizations that have expressed interest in participating in OASE’s transformative agreement framework. It will provide…
(23 Nov 2025) The stately main reading room of a Kobe University library that survived World War II as well as the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake is reminiscent of the world of “Harry Potter.” The university is home to nine libraries, with the oldest being the Library for Social Sciences located in Kobe’s Nada…
(12 Nov 2025) Visitors to a certain library in Japan’s capital were greeted by a poster reading, “Please try the ‘AI (artificial intelligence) librarian!’” But what is an AI librarian? Librarians are, of course, staff who manage the collecting, organizing and preserving of books in municipal and school libraries. They also help readers find books and…
(25 Jun 2025) Researchers in Japan have found that the more public library books a municipality has, the fewer residents require long-term nursing care. Why is this? The Mainichi Shimbun spoke with one of the authors of the research paper titled “Public libraries and functional disability: A cohort study of Japanese older adults.” The research…
(19 May 2025) Four members of the Sumiyoshi-kai were arrested in Tokyo’s Kiyose City district on suspicion of operating an office in an apartment that was 90 meters from a library, when yakuza offices are only permitted outside of a 200-meter radius of libraries. This might seem at odds with many people’s images of…
(24 Mar 2025) Tanaka Ryonosuke of the Acquisitions and Bibliography Department, National Diet Library, introduces the transition of the Japanese National Bibliography from paper-based formats to digital data, now known as the Japanese National Bibliographic Data in this article. It began with “Nohon Geppo” in 1948 and evolved to digital formats with JAPAN/MARC in…