Certification Program of Archivists by the National Archives of Japan


As a way of empowering professionals who take responsibilities in management of historical public records and archives, National Archives of Japan (NAJ) has established a certification program of archivists since 2020. The aims of this program are: to establish a profession for supporting proper management of public records and archives which are intellectual resources to be shared by the people, and for assuring preservation and use of them; as well as to secure reliability and expertise of that profession.


1.Basic Structure of the Program

Archivist Certification is officially granted by the President of the National Archives of Japan, to those who are recognized to meet requirements by the review process. Archivist Certification Committee consisting of external experts with knowledge and experience review the applications submitted to NAJ.

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The review criteria are three-fold:

(1)Knowledge and Skills
Either completing designated classes or training programs organized by graduate-level institutions

(2)Working Experience
Three years or more of archival experience

(3)Research and Study
Completing master's-level education and has at least one research product on archival science or archival practice


After careful review of the Committee, 190 NAJ-certified archivists were named on January 1, 2021.


Analysis according to the types of affiliation of the recipients indicates that the largest group was those with national* and local (both prefectural and municipal) archival institutions (110 individuals). Other groups included museums and libraries (22), local governments (18), private universities and research institutions (17). On the other hand, there were a few independent archivists, as well as those currently not involved in archival profession.

*National university archives are included in this category.


As to the age groups, they ranged between 20s and 70s, average being 48.8. The most typical profile of an NAJ-certified archivist would be a mid-career professional with experience of over 10 years, who takes a major role in the core business operations at an archival institution.

There were a certain number of people who were in the managerial level and/or retired from the front line.


2. Background

Efforts for establishing an archival profession dates back to 1980's. Public Archives Act of 1987, which is a philosophical foundation for public archives in Japan, has a statement about placement of professionals at public archives. However, there was a difficulty in recruiting appropriate personnel around that time due to a lack of proper system for educating archival professionals.

Related organizations and groups have engaged in various discussions and proposals concerning archival professionals and training programs for them, before and since the establishment of the law. In this regard, NAJ has been organizing training programs since 1998, targeting at employees of national and local public archives all over the country.

In 2009, Public Records and Archives Management Act was established. The Act defines a unified rule for management of administrative records of the national government, as well as general rules for preservation and use of historical public records and archives. Since then, constructing systematic plans for both nurturing and certifying the archival professionals have been on agenda.

Against these backgrounds, NAJ has drawn up a framework proposal as illustrated below since 2014 and been engaged in efforts through a step-by-step process to contribute to fostering archivists.

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First, archivists' tasks and the required expertise were defined by "Standard of Tasks and Competencies for Archivists." Once the Standard came to wide use as a basic resource for nurturing professionals, including application to the curriculum of the graduate school courses and the training programs, the final step was to launch a new national certification program designed for a public institution to acknowledge professional expertise of archivists.

Through continued efforts in cooperation with institutions and organizations, NAJ is committed to further educating and empowering archival professionals in Japan.



Links
>>Standard of Tasks and Competencies for Archivists (December 2018) [PDF]
>>Public Archives Act (English translation)
>>Public Records and Archives Management Act (English translation)

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