International Council of Archives

Japanese archivists celebrated the second International Archives Day (IAD) on June 9th, 2009.

This year, we held the commemorative lecture at Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives (YPA) which is located on the westernmost part of the main island of Japan. YPA marked the 50th anniversary of its foundation this year. It is the first public archives, established in Japan in 1959 even before the opening of the National Archives of Japan in 1971. This year's IAD event coincided with the celebration of the opening of the first public archives in Japan half a century ago.

President Kikuchi made an opening address, and two prominent keynote speakers gave lectures on the records management legislation for the state organizations and its impact on the local governments. More than 100 archivists, including the Directors of most local public archives, joined the event.

In Japan, the public records management bill passed the House of Representatives and it was sent to the Upper House on June 11th, two days after the IAD event. Records management law has been a long-awaited legislation for the Japanese archival community and if the bill becomes a law, 2009 will be the epoch-making year for Japanese archivists.

Yumiko Ohara
National Archives of Japan