1. Japanese Market
From Agent’s point of view
Yutaka Masuda
USACO Corporation
2007.6.7
@Society of Scholarly Publishing

2. USACO - Company Overview
1950 US-Asiatic Company
1983 USACO Corporation
Location: Tokyo, Osaka
+Logistical office
Revenue: ¥4.7B / US$40M (FY2006)
Print 55%
Electric 45%
Employee： 70
2

3. USACO - History
1969 ISI(Thomson Scientific)
1980 BRS Online
1989 SilverPlatter
1991 Ovid (CD Plus)
1997 Niles Software (EndNote)
1998 HighWire, Prous Science
1999 JSTOR
2001 Ex Libris
3

4. Some facts / Key words
• R&D Expenditure 16.9T yen (US 32.9T yen)
By Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and communications
• 0.8M Research Personnel (1.2M in US)
• 744 Universities
– 87 National / 89 Public / 568 Private as of FY2006
• Aging Society with Fewer Children
4

5. http://www8.cao.go.jp/shoushi/whitepaper/w-2006/18webgaiyoh/html/i1140000.html
5

6. Key organizations
• MEXT /Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology
• JST / Japan Science and Technology Agency
• NII / National Institute of Informatics
• Major consortia in Japan
– JANUL (Japan Association of National University Libraries)
– PULC (Public and Private University Libraries Consortium)
– JMLA (NPO Japan Medical Library Association)
– JPLA (Japan Pharmaceutical Library Association)
• METI, NDL, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare,
6

7. Services from NII
• SINET (Science Information Network)
• NACSIS-CAT
• GeNii (NII Academic Contents Portal)
• NII REO (NII Electronic Journal Repository)
– 1600 titles from Springer, Oxford Univ. Press
7

8. http://reo.nii.ac.jp/journal/HtmlIndicate/html/index_en.html
8

9. Stored Contents in REO
» Approx. 25 titles
» Approx. 500 titles
» Approx. 150 titles / National Site License
» Approx. 800 titles
9

10. Services from NII - Cont
• Cyber Science Infrastructure (CSI)
• SPARC Japan
10

11. http://www.nii.ac.jp/sparc/
11

12. Competitive Situation in
Universities
• Energetic and distinctive universities in a
competitive environment
• 21st Century COE pogram
• National University Corporation – funding
from MEXT until FY2008
• Better Management / Better Budget
• Promotional office (Hokkaido U. Tohoku U. Kyoto U..)
• Action Plans / Targets
12

13. 13

14. Some Trends
• Nursing
• Health Science - Occupational Therapy / Physical
Therapy / Rehabilitation / Radiological Science /
Acupuncture Therapy
• Welfare
• Pharmaceutical Science - 4 years to 6 years
program (from 2006)
• Law School
• Medical Schools receive more student since we
need more doctors
14

15. Characteristic
• No International Library Systems
– Z39.50 is not used
– MARC21 is not used
• Multiple sites
• English skill
• FTE counts
15

16. Thank you!
16