This webpage introduces the main resources and Internet resources for researching expositions. Expositions covered here include international expositions (universal expositions) as well as various expositions held in Japan from the early Meiji period to the present. To find materials on individual expositions, see "3. To search the NDL Search".

1. Materials published in Japanese

• "Kokusai hakurankai to Nihon" (Exhibition Division, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) /[2005] / Our Call No.: D7-H54)*
  This material contains an overview of overseas international expositions in which Japan has participated after World War II. It also includes an overview of international expositions held in Japan.

• "Meijiki bankoku hakurankai bijyutsuhin shuppin mokuroku" (Chuokouronbijyutsu shuppan /1997 / Our Call No.: K3-G53)
  This is a material summarizing the arts and crafts exhibited from Japan at nine major international expositions held overseas from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji period. It includes "Catalog of works of art exhibited at the World Expositions and catalog of awards received", as well as "Index of the names of exhibitors and producers by surname and title".

• 'Nippon no hakurankai -Terashita Tsuyoshi korekushon' ("Bessatsu Taiyo"　No.133, February 2005 pp.1-240 / Our Call No.: Z23-238)
  Based on the collection of exposition researcher Terashita Tsuyoshi, this material presents information on expositions held in Japan. It contains about 700 visual materials such as posters, nishiki-e (brocade pictures), venue maps, and tickets of the time. A "Chronological Table of Japanese Expositions" is included at the end of the material, listing names, dates, venues, number of visitors, etc.

• Tanaka Katsuhiko 'Kokuritsukokkaitoshokanshozo hakurankaikankei shiryo mokuroku' ("Reference Service and Bibliography" No.44　August 1994　pp.48-121 / Our Call No.: Z21-291) (NDL Digital Collections)

  This is a catalog of materials (including non-Japanese materials) related to expositions held by the National Diet Library since the end of the Edo period and the Meiji period. This contains materials related to international expositions (universal expositions), National Industrial Expositions , and regional expositions held from 1834 to 1993, in chronological order. In addition to overviews and research books on expositions in general, this material contains a comprehensive collection of reports and records on individual expositions, as well as catalogs of exhibits.

  Some of the materials listed in the catalog above that were published earlier may have been digitized by the NDL or overseas libraries. You can search for digitized materials in the databases below. For other representative databases, see" Digital Archives of Cultural Institutions in Europe and the United States"(Japanese)in the Search Guide.

Japanese material

• National Diet Library Digital Collections
  The NDL Digital Collections is a service that allows you to browse digital materials collected by the National Diet Library.

Non-Japanese materials

• Europeana
  You can search across the digital archives of cultural heritage institutions within the EU from this website.

• Digital Public Library of America
  This website provides a cross-sectional search of digital content held by libraries, museums, archives, and other institutions throughout the United States.

• HathiTrust Digital Library
  This website contains digital data of materials held by university libraries in the United States and other countries around the world. For materials not listed in the above catalog, please see "3. To search the NDL Search".

2. Materials published in languages other than Japanese

• "Historical dictionary of world's fairs and expositions, 1851-1988" (Greenwood Press / 1990 / Our Call No.: D7-B3)
  This encyclopedia covers international expositions and other events held from 1851 to 1988.

• "Encyclopedia of world's fairs and expositions" (McFarland & Co. / 2008)
  This encyclopedia focuses on international expositions held since 1851, explaining them from the perspective of history, architecture, and culture.

3. To search the NDL Search

The National Diet Library's collection can be searched at the NDL Search. To display NDL Search in English, please click "English" at the top right of the screen. Please combine keywords such as exhibitions, world's fair, expositions, weltausstellung, or esposizione with keywords such as report, record, history, exhibit, catalogue, or illustrated collection to search. For individual expositions, search by combining the host country/ city, such as "Vienna", "Philadelphia", "United States", or "Paris".

4. Internet resources

• Bureau International des Expositions(BIE) (English)
  This is the website of the Bureau International des Expositions. It contains information on upcoming international expositions, as well as an overview and history of international expositions and information on past international expositions.

• Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan official website (English)
  This website contains information about the World Expo scheduled to be held in Japan in 2025.

• Expositions where the modern technology of the times was exhibited (National Diet Library Digital Exhibition)(English)
  This website introduces the history of international expositions and National Industrial expositions and their relationship to industry and technology, along with a variety of images. It also contains references and links.

• National Diet Library Web Archiving Project (WARP)(English)
  This website collects and archives websites of public organizations, including national and local government agencies. WARP allows you to search for keywords, such as the name of the exposition, to see the relevant pages of an archived website.

• Japan Search（The Digital Archive Japan Promotion Committee and Practitioner Review Committee）(Japanese, English)
  To display Japan Search in English, please click "English" at the bottom right of the screen. Japan Search allows users to cross-search diverse content in digital archives in various fields in Japan, including books, cultural properties, and the media arts. You can also search by keywords such as the name of the exposition, and narrow your search by categories such as art, cultural properties, and official documents.

• The Power of Invention in Public Records(National Archives of Japan Digital Exhibitions) (Japanese)
  This website includes "National Industrial Expositions -Raising Industry in the First Year of Meiji-" as "Part I". It also includes a list of materials featured in the Digital Exhibition.

• What we can see from the expos(University of Tokyo Library System Special Exhibition) (Japanese)
  This website contains "Digital Exhibitions" and "Catalogue of Materials Related to the Expositions held by the University of Tokyo (Tentative version)".

• Collection of reports related to World Expositions(Kyushu University Library Collections) (Japanese)
  This website contains catalogs of international exposition-related collections held by the Kyushu University Library.

• EXPO MATERIALS COLLECTION(Nomura Co., Ltd.) (Japanese)
  You can search for approximately 10,000 exposition-related materials owned by Nomura Co., Ltd. in the "Expositions and Exposition Materials Search" section of this website. The "Brief History of Japanese Expositions" section of this website provides an overview of the history of Japanese expositions.

Link to related reference examples (Cooperative Reference Database)

• Photograph of bronze medals awarded to winners of the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition(Japanese)
• Overview of Japanese exhibits and the Japanese Pavilion at the San Francisco World's Fair(Japanese)
• Report on the World's Fair held in New Orleans and Exhibit Details of the Japan Pavilion(Japanese)