Origins
Aozora Bunko was created on the Internet in 1997 to provide broadly available, free access to Japanese literary works whose copyrights had expired. The driving force behind the project was one man—Michio Tomita—who was motivated by the simple belief that people with a common interest should cooperate with each other.
In Japan, Aozora Bunko is considered similar to Project Gutenberg.
The Aozora Bunko resources are searchable by category, author, or title; and there is a considerable amount of support in how to use the database in the form of detailed explanations. The files can be downloaded in PDF format or simply viewed in HTML format.
Most of the texts provided are Japanese literature and translations from English literature. This digital library ultimately plans to include 6,000+ works on the site.
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