Revision as of 05:58, 20 December 2012

2011 Shashi Group Workshop at AAS in Hawai'i

Researching With Shashi: A Workshop on Using Japanese Company
and Institutional Histories and Archives
Sponsored by the Japanese Company Histories Interest Group (Shashi Group)

Thursday, March 31
7:00PM-9:00PM, Room 303A, SESSION# 191
Hawaii Convention Center, Level 3

ABSTRACT
Japanese company and institutional histories open windows into the past. Richly illustrated and packed with information, chronologies and data while layered with corporate and societal values, shashi provide rich research value. Corporate and institutional archives preserve sources used for the histories along with extensive primary resources of administration. While most corporate archives in Japan are not open, some have moved to collective repositories, now accessible to researchers. Shashi are useful for research in many fields and disciplines as well, providing information that creates context, allows three-dimensional views of individuals, and illuminates case studies. This workshop explores the research potential of shashi and archives, as well as the limitations that make them challenging to use, along with practical workarounds that can help.

1. Yasuhiro Eguchi, Professor, Department of Intercultural Communication, Gakushûin Women’s College, Japan
Paper title: A Study of Practical Uses of Company Histories (Shashi)

First, my paper will discuss approaches to increase the collecting of shashi, a challenging task due to their autobiographical nature and their distribution via non-commercial channels. Strategic actions (IR • PR, CS R, M & A, branding, etc) are required of today's companies, so the strategic implications (mission) for shashi has increased. Therefore, I will discuss what meaning shashi hold for users, and reconsider the position and meaning of shashi for stakeholders. My analysis will show that by considering three types of value creation (pleasure), namely the pleasure of discovering and collecting, the pleasure of cataloging, and the pleasure of being used by users, we can recognize the importance of switching from archeological values to marketing values when discussing shashi.
2. Masataka Yano, Archivist, Resources and Historical Collections Office, Library of Economics, University of Tokyo
Paper title: Corporate data (kigyô shiryô) and Archives, focus on company histories

First, from a viewpoint of an archivist, I will differentiate corporate data (kigyô shiryô) from its function (creating entity, contents, etc) and form (media, etc). From this differentiation, I will show that there are many different levels of kigyô shiryô. Then, I will introduce the kigyô shiryô which are held by the Resources and Historical Collections Office, Library of Economics, University of Tokyo, according to such differentiation. I will also introduce trends related to the material collected, the state of preservation, and the status of access to the library by the public. Pros and cons related to external institutions holding kigyô shiryô are discussed. The relationship between shashi compilation project and external archives will be discussed using selected materials from the collection.

3. Maureen Donovan, Japanese Studies Librarian, Associate Professor, Ohio State University
Paper title: Japanese Company Histories as Repositories of Tacit Knowledge

With the Japanese economy continuing to languish in the doldrums, a special issue of The Weekly Toyo Keizai (commemorating 115 years of publication) carried an article urging businessmen to consult Japanese company histories to find the tacit know-how they need to re-start the economic engines of the country. This paper examines the role that Japanese corporate histories play in preserving a company’s hard-earned tacit knowledge, embedded in stories meant to last for generations, and why this is making them increasingly relevant in the 21st century, not only for businessmen but also for scholars.

4. Dr. Ann Sherif, Professor, Oberlin College
Paper title: Technologies of Printing and Regional Literatures in Hiroshima, 1945

When war, political upheaval, and economic and material scarcity disrupt a publishing industry, how do writers find their way back into print? I will explore the ways that technologies of printing and politics intersected with literary and media discourses in World War II and post-atomic bomb Hiroshima. An examination of the regional publisher Chugoku Shimbun and renowned poet Toge Sankichi allows us to see the dynamics of regional publishing and cultural consumption, in contrast to the dominance of the Tokyo literary establishment and publishing industry.