About Media Arts Database (Beta Version)

Since FY 2010, to promote the development of media arts* in Japan, the Agency for Cultural Affairs has been conducting a survey on media arts having been created so far in Japan.(Media arts, or media geijutsu in Japanese, refer to contemporary art and entertainment including manga, animation, game and media art.)

It is the Media Arts Database (hereinafter referred to as the “Database”) that is widely released to the public as part of the results. By organizing and developing the work information and stored information about manga, animation, games, and media art, we provide data that is key to the access to media arts and the preservation, utilization, and application thereof.

In addition to the above-mentioned four areas, the Database offers search methods, such as “search all” and “combined search”, that enable you to find out the information about the work by searching the areas cross-sectionally. In addition, we have made the Web API and the data set open to the public so as to utilize and apply data for various purposes.

We do hope that many people make use of our services to collect information and conduct surveys or research and would be happy if you could enjoy media arts through the Database.

In addition, the contents and functions of the Database are subject to updating and addition on a regular basis.

＊
Basic Law on Art and Culture (as amended by Act No. 148 of 2001) June 23, 2017

Chapter 3 Basic measures for Art and Culture
　Article 9 To promote movies, manga, animation, and other artworks that use computers and/or any other electronic devices (hereinafter referred to as the “media arts”), the national government shall support the production, screening, and exhibition of media arts, back up the preservation of articles relating to the production of media arts, support the efforts for handing over the knowledge and skills concerning media arts, hold art festivals, and implement other necessary measures.

About the information within the Database

The data within the Media Arts Database (beta version) is created and registered based on the following method and data:

Manga area

[Manga books]

The data up to September 2017 has been created and registered from the stored catalog and bibliographic data owned by each cooperative organization (Cooperative organization in the manga area). As for ownership, the stored information of each cooperative organization has been registered based on its stored catalog data. Since October 2017, the bibliographic data on the stored data provided by the National Diet Library has been created and registered about once a month. As for ownership, the data is registered based on the stored information described in the stored information of the National Diet Library.


For both data, the data classified as “726.1 Manga, Gekiga (Graphic novel) and Caricatures” under the Nippon Decimal Classification System that indicates the classification of books in the bibliographic data of the National Diet Library or the data owned as manga books (books) by other cooperative organizations is registered.

[Manga book series]

Using the description items of the bibliographic data registered in manga books, the data is created and registered about once a year.

[Manga magazine]

The data has been created and registered through surveys of the stored catalog and bibliographic data owned by each cooperative organization and the data owned by the National Diet Library. As for ownership, the stored data of each cooperative organization was registered based on its stored catalog data and, in the National Diet Library, based on the field surveys.

[Manga magazine publication] [Manga magazine details of contents]

With regard to the following magazines, the data has been created and registered by conducting surveys of the data owned by the National Diet Library.

  • Weekly Shonen Sunday (Shogakukan Inc.) From the first issue to the issue sold around July 2017

  • Weekly Shonen Magazine (Kodansha Ltd.) From the first issue to the issue sold around July 2017

  • Weekly Shonen Jump (Shueisha Inc.) From the first issue to the issue sold around July 2017 (including Shonen Jump)

  • Weekly Shonen Champion (Akita Publishing Co., Ltd.) From the first issue to the issue sold around July 2015 (including Shonen Champion)

  • Big Comic (Shogakukan Inc.) From the first issue to the issue sold around August 2012

  • Manga Action (Futabasha Publishers Ltd.) From the first issue to the issue sold around August 1978 (including Weekly Manga Action)

  • NAKAYOSI (Kodansha Ltd.) From the first issue to the issue sold in December 2017

  • RIBON (Shueisha Inc.) From the first issue to the issue sold in January 2011

  • CHAO (Shogakukan Inc.) From the first issue to the issue sold in November 2015

  • Hana to Yume (Hakusensha) From the first issue to the issue sold around July 2009

  • GARO (Seirindo) All issues

  • COM (Mushi Pro Shoji) All issues

  • Manga Shonen (Gakudosha) All issues

  • GRAND JUMP (Shueisha Inc.) Issues sold in 2015 and 2016

  • JUMP SQ. (JUMP SQUARE) (Shueisha Inc.) From the first issue to the issue sold around July 2017

  • Young Comic (Shonengahosha Co., Ltd.) From the first issue to the issue sold in 1968

  • GRAND JUMP PREMIUM (Shueisha Inc.) Issues sold in 2015 and 2016

    • Including the issues on which surveys have not been conducted due to a partial omission of ownership.

Animation area

[Animation TV program] [Animation TV regular series] [Animation TV special series]

The data up to 2017 has been created and registered through the survey of the following data, as well as through the data provision and the survey/cooperation implemented by the List Production Committee in terms of video images of works. The data from October 2016 to December 2019 has been created and registered from the data related to the terrestrial TV programs in the wide Kanto area that was provided by M Data Co., Ltd.Data from January 2020 onwards was created and registered based on data on terrestrial and BS digital television programs in the wide Kanto area and provided by the Anime Tokusatsu Archive Centre. †


†Reference:
Anime Tokusatsu Archive Centre (ATAC): Study, Verification, and Implementation Report for Continuous Establishment and Development of Animation Staff Database (Project for the Promotion of Cooperation of Media Arts 2019)
Japanese Animation Creators Association (JAniCA): Verification and Implementation Report on Data Registration from List Database into Media Arts Database (beta version) and on Text Extraction of Recording Servers (Media Arts Collaboration Platform Development Project 2020, Collaboration Platform Development Project, Collaboration Platform Enhancement Project)
Japanese Animation Creators Association (JAniCA): Implementation Report on High Precision of Text Recognition for Credit Information Generated from Recording Servers and Pilot Run of Metadata Processing Automation (Media Arts Collaboration Platform Development Project 2021, Enhancement Project by Category)
Japanese Animation Creators Association (JAniCA): Implementation Report on Further Sophistication of Text Recognition for Credit Information and Generalization of Metadata Processing (Media Arts Collaboration Platform Development Project 2022, Enhancement Project by Category)

<Data>

  • Animage Editorial Department’s The 25-year History of TV Animations (Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.) about the works broadcast from 1962 to 1988

  • Tokyo Animation Award Work data for voting About the works broadcast from November 2000 to July 2013

  • “For Animation GP voting Annual perfect data on all the animation works” (Article in the magazine, Animage (Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.) about the works broadcast from 2000 to 2009

  • “Annual perfect data on all the animation works” (Supplement to Anime Industry Report [The Association of Japanese Animations]) about the works broadcast from 2014 to 2016

  • “PERFECT DATA ON STAFF” (Article in the magazine, Animage [Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.]) about the works broadcast from 1988 to 1989 and from December 2013 to September 2014

  • “ANIMAGE RADER,” “NEWS BOX,” and “A’s Labo” (Articles about the information on new works in the magazine, Animage [Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.]) about the works broadcast from 1988 to 1989, in 2000, and from 2013 to 2014

  • “ANIMATION WORLD” (Article in the magazine, Animage [Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.]) about Minna No Uta (NHK) broadcast from 1988 to 2009

[Animation video package] [Animation video package series]

The data (up to 2017) has been created and registered through the survey of the following data as well as through the data provision and the survey and cooperation implemented by the List Production Committee in terms of video images of works.

<Data>

  • List Production Committee Animage Animation Pocket Data 2000 (Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.) about the original video works sold from 1983 to 1989

  • “ANIMAGE RADER” and “NEWS BOX” (Articles about the information on new works in the magazine, Animage [Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.]) about the original video works sold from 1988 to 1989 and from 2000 to 2002

  • “A Group of DVD Appraisers” and “DVD’s Labo” (Articles about the DVD information in the magazine, Animage [Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.]) about the original video works sold from 2002 to 2014

  • “Annual perfect data on all the animation works” (Supplement to Anime Industry Report [Association of Japanese Animations]) about the original video works sold from 2014 to 2016

[Animation movie] [Animation movie series]

The data (up to 2017) has been created and registered through the survey of the following data as well as through the data provision/survey/cooperation implemented by the List Production Committee.

<Data>

  • The History of Japanese Animation Films by Katsunori Yamaguchi and Yasushi Watanabe (Yubunsha Co., Ltd.) about the works broadcast from 1917 to 1977

  • Animage Editorial Department’s The 70-year History of Japanese Theatrical Animations (Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.) about the works broadcast from 1958 to 1988

  • Tokyo Animation Award Work data for voting About the works broadcast from November 2000 to July 2013

  • “For Animation GP voting Annual perfect data on all the animation works” (Article in the magazine, Animage (Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.) about the works broadcast from 2000 to 2009

  • “ANIMAGE RADER,” “NEWS BOX,” and “A’s Labo” (Articles about the information on new works in the magazine, Animage [Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.]) about the works broadcast from 1988 to 1989, in 2000, and from 2013 to 2014

  • “Annual perfect data on all the animation works” (Supplement to Anime Industry Report [Association of Japanese Animations]) about the works broadcast from 2014 to 2016

Game area

[Game works]

The bibliographic data of RCGS Collection, which is the online catalog of the stored data of the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies, is registered. The said data has been created by using the original data and the data shown in the data sources, such as Wikidata‡.


‡Reference data: Kazufumi Fukuda, “An Essay to Create Catalogs Using the Community Generation Data: Video game catalogs as an example”; Information Science and Technology 2022, 72 (8), pp. 299–306. https://doi.org/10.18919/jkg.72.8_299.

[Game variations]

The bibliographic data of RCGS Collection is registered. The said bibliographic data has been created by using the original data and the data shown in the data sources.

[Game package]

The data has been created and registered through the Media Arts Digital Archive Project and the survey of the following data conducted by the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies. In addition, as for part of home-use video games and PC games, the bibliographic data of the online catalog, RCGS Collection, which was created through the survey of the original data of the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies, has been registered. As for part of PC games, the data obtained through the survey of the original data of the Game Preservation Society has been provided.
As for individual data, the stored information of the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies, the National Diet Library and the Game Preservation Society has been registered based on each of their stored catalog data.

【Home-use video game】

  • Chozetsu Daigirin Autumn 2011 Complete Version Covering All the 26 Game Machines (AnBit): Works sold until 2011

  • Famitsu (Famicom Communication) (Kadokawa Game Linkage Inc.): Works sold since 2011

  • Game Platformer Official Website (Nintendo Co., Ltd.’s website, Xbox official site, PlayStation official site)

  • Video Game Perfect Catalog (Tokumashoten Intermedia Inc.)

  • Dengeki PlayStation (Kadokawa Game Linkage Inc.)

  • Game Yearbook 1989, Game Yearbook 1988, Game Yearbook First Half of 1990, Game Yearbook Second Half of 1990, Game Yearbook First Half of 1991, and Game Yearbook Second Half of 1991 (ASCII)

  • Game Publisher Official Website

  • Wikipedia.org

【Arcade game】

  • Masumi Akagi, Arcade TV Game List - Domestic/Overseas Editions 1971-2005 (Amusement Press Inc.)

  • MICROCOMPUTER BASIC MAGAZINE (Dempa Publications, Inc.)

  • Monthly ARCADIA (Kadokawa Corporation)

  • Monthly Amusement Journal (Amusement Journal)

  • Amusement Industry (Amusement Industry Publishing Corp.)

  • Coin Journal (Amusement Journal)

  • Game Machine (Amusement Press Inc.)

  • GAMEST (Shinseisha)

  • The Best Game 2 (Shinseisha)

  • Complete Collection of Natsukasi (Nostalgic) Games (Futabasha Publishers Ltd.)

  • The Best Game (Shinseisha)

【PC game】

  • LOGiN (Kadokawa Corporation)

  • I/O (Kohgaku-Sha Co., Ltd.)

  • Comptiq (Kadokawa Corporation)

  • TECHNOPOLIS (Tokumashoten Intermedia Inc.)

  • POPCOM (Shogakukan Inc.)

Media art area

[MediaArt Exhibition/Performance] [MediaArt Special Event]

The data has been created and registered based on the surveys of personal exhibition histories of creators and so forth described in the event publications, such as exhibition catalogs and leaflets, the official website of NTT Intercommunication Center (2019), the articles, websites and/or illustrated catalogs of Bijutsu Techo (Bijutsu Shuppan-sha Co., Ltd.) and InterCommunication (NTT Publishing Co., Ltd.).


As for the award-winning works of Japan Media Arts Festival (1st to 23rd festivals), the data has been created and registered based on the list of the said award-winning works and Japan Media Arts Festival’s website, https://j-mediaarts.jp/award/.

Searching the areas cross-sectionally

[Agent]

In the process of registration of manga, animation, games and media arts, surveys have been conducted, as well in terms of their creators and others, so that the data has been created and registered.
For each type of works, the following data is used as the major source of information.

  • Manga: Data obtained from the National Diet Library (nominal source)

  • Game: RCGS Collection (organizational source/personal source)

[Special event]

As for the award-winning works of Japan Media Arts Festival and award-winning work exhibitions (1st to 23rd festivals/exhibitions), the data has been created and registered based on the list of the said award-winning works and Japan Media Arts Festival’s website, https://j-mediaarts.jp/award/.

If you have an opinion on the data registered in the Media Arts Database or a proposition for modifying the data, please access the following URL: https://fofa.jp/madb/a.p/101/.
After confirming the facts, we will consider how to respond to your proposition for modification.

Brochure introducing the Media Arts Database

About the Easy-to-understand Media Arts Database—Archives for the future constructed based on the linking data—

This is the brochure that explains the outline and functions of the Media Arts Database in an easy-to-understand manner.
Please feel free to make use of it to introduce the Media Arts Database in your lesson or lecture.
Those who wish to receive the brochures or might be able to distribute them at certain facilities or events are kindly requested to contact our reception desk for receiving customers’ opinions(URL:https://fofa.jp/madb/a.p/101/).

Illustration and design by Hinata Kino

Creative Commons License
This work is provided under the Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International.

Media Arts Database (Beta version)

About the tentative release of the Web API and data set

  • Outline

    • To develop the Web API and release the data set that serves to utilize and apply the data of the Media Arts Database (Beta version), currently, we are tentatively releasing part of the Web API and data set.

    • The period for tentative release is yet to be fixed at this point in time. We do not guarantee to continue the tentative release.

  • Functions to be tentatively released

    Web API

    • For the detailed specifications of the Web API, please refer to the document.

    Disclaimer concerning the Web API to be tentatively released

    • The handling of data obtained by the Web API shall be subject to the Terms of Use of the Website.

    • We cannot provide technical support for the use of the Web API. Please refer to the document that is prepared separately.

    • Considering the load on the website, the following restrictions are imposed for calling the Web API.

      The upper limit for the number of data obtainable at a one-time call has been set.

      When having detected successive calls from the same IP address in a short time, there are cases where the connection from the IP address is temporarily cut.

    • The Web API is subject to change in service specifications and/or to the interruption of service without notice due to a tentative release.

    Data set

    • An account has been opened at GitHub, and the data set has been released to the public. For the detailed specifications of the data set, please refer to the following link.

      GitHub account (external site)

    Operating Policy for the Media Arts Database Official GitHub Account

    • As the account aims to proceed with the technical examination, along with the transmission of technical information, through the interaction with external engineers, there are cases where the contents of transmission by the account are different from the final official view of the Media Arts Database.

    • With regard to the information posted by the account, please use it within the range of conditions indicated on each page. When not indicated, the Terms of Use of the website shall apply (the Terms of Use).

    • The Agency for Cultural Affairs shall not assume any responsibility for any act of the user using the information posted by the account (including the use of the information generated by editing or processing the information posted by the account).

    • The information posted by the account is subject to change or deletion without notice due to a tentative release.

    • The Operating Policy is subject to change without notice.

    MADB Lab

    • To widely utilize the data concerning the Media Arts Database, the MADB Lab is open to the public.
      The MADB Lab not only provides the data set and SPARQL endpoint but also transmits information concerning the ways to use them and application examples. Please use the service through the link below.

      https://mediag.bunka.go.jp/madb_lab/

  • Feedback

    • We would be grateful if you could give us your opinion and/or request about the use of the Web API and the data set so that we may utilize them for future development. As for feedback, please let us have your opinions first (URL:https://fofa.jp/madb/a.p/101/).

About this Website

Links

In principle, Media Arts Database (Beta version) (https://mediaarts-db.bunka.go.jp/; hereinafter the “Website”) is free to link to (not only the top page of the Website, links to individual information will be treated in the same way), unless a separate note is attached to information to limit or restrict links to the information. You do not need to inform us in advance about a link, but please pay attention to the following points:

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Copyrights

Copyrights or other rights to some content on the Website may be held by a third party (meaning persons other than the state). The Website as whole is also copyrighted as an editorial work and protected under the Copyright Act of Japan and international treaties. When using any content on the Website, please use it in line with the Terms of Use.

Disclaimer

  • While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information published on the Website, the Agency for Cultural Affairs will in no way be responsible for any acts of users using the information on the Website.

  • The service may be discontinued or suspended if any of the following items is found applicable:

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The website recommends the following environment so that the website may be used safely and comfortably.

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    Windows10，macOS11，iOS15，Android11

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