Tokyo libraries with English books

[kendall.heitzman@yale.edu]

I was at Meiji Gakuin in the summer of 2005 and was granted library access on
the basis of a letter from the Japanese librarian at my home institution.  The
letter did mention Meiji Gakuin by name, but there was no need to list 
specific
titles I wanted; it's far more humane than Waseda's system.

In addition to the Tokyo Public Library, you may have luck with the Yokohama
Central Library, which has a fairly good English collection and is only 
a short
walk from Sakuragi-cho station.

On a related note, the Japan Foundation's wonderful 
foreign-scholarship-on-Japan
library is moving from the ARK-Mori building to an undisclosed location and
apparently will be closed until late June.  Just in case anyone coming 
to Tokyo
in the next three months was thinking it would be an option ...

Kendall Heitzman
PhD Candidate
East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

Quoting "Jonathan M. Hall" <jmhall at uci.edu>:

> Meiji Gakuin University Library has since instituted a strictly  
> enforced entrance policy.  A letter of introduction is definitely  
> needed. I believe there was an unfortunate incident three or four  
> years ago that precipitated the shift.  Meiji Gakuin has a wonderful  
> collection and is a great place to study.
>
> Jonathan
>
>
> On Mar 31, 2008, at 12:34 PM, Lori Morimoto wrote:
>
>> When I was at Meiji Gakuin in 2003, they had a reasonably good  
>> cinema collection in English (and I believe their catalogue is  
>> online through the university website, so you could check to see  
>> what's available), and there was no one doing any kind of ID check  
>> at the library entrance.  You wouldn't be able to check books out  
>> or use any of the online databases, but if nothing has changed you  
>> should be able to at least look at the books and take notes on site.
>>
>> LHM
>>
>