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| Museums Association of Japan | |
|---|---|
| Name | Museums Association of Japan |
| Native name | 日本博物館協会 |
| Formation | 1947 |
| Type | Professional association |
| Headquarters | Tokyo |
| Region served | Japan |
| Membership | Museums, professionals, students |
| Leader title | President |
Museums Association of Japan is a national professional association that represents museums, curators, conservators, educators, and administrators across Japan. It serves as a coordinating body for preservation, exhibition, and public outreach activities involving cultural heritage, natural history, and science collections. The association engages with municipal museums, university museums, private museums, and national institutions to advance standards and foster collaboration.
The association was founded in the aftermath of World War II during a period of reconstruction that involved institutions such as the Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Osaka Museum of History, National Museum of Nature and Science, and numerous prefectural and city museums. Early interactions connected leaders from Meiji University Museum, The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Kyushu National Museum, Hokkaido Museum, and regional cultural bureaus in Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka. Postwar initiatives paralleled international efforts by organizations like the International Council of Museums, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. Throughout the late 20th century, the association responded to issues raised by institutions including the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Nara National Museum, Hakone Open-Air Museum, and private institutions such as the Adachi Museum of Art and the Ohara Museum of Art.
The association's governance includes an executive board, advisory committees, and regional chapters modeled after museum networks seen at the Smithsonian Institution and the British Museum. Leadership positions have been held by directors from the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the National Diet Library, university museums at Kyoto University, and curators with ties to the Agency for Cultural Affairs (Japan). Committees cover conservation with links to the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, collections management influenced by practices at the British Library and the Library of Congress, and education programs coordinated with institutions like the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan).
Membership spans national museums, municipal museums, university museums, private museums, and specialized institutions such as aquarium and botanical collections associated with JAMSTEC, Kobe Maritime Museum, Ueno Zoological Gardens, and museum departments at Keio University. Affiliated institutions include the Japan Association for Museum Education, regional museum federations in Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kinki, Chugoku-Shikoku, and Kyushu-Okinawa. Members engage with international counterparts such as the American Alliance of Museums, the International Council on Archives, and the International Centre for Documentary Heritage.
The association organizes annual conferences, symposia, and workshops involving conservation case studies from the Todai Botanical Garden, exhibition design collaborations with the Design Museum, and disaster response planning informed by experiences at institutions like the Great Hanshin earthquake recovery teams and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami heritage salvage efforts. Educational programs partner with the National Museum of Ethnology and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum to develop school outreach modeled on initiatives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre. Professional exchanges, internship placements, traveling exhibitions, and joint projects have been undertaken with the Asia-Pacific Network of Major Museums and the European Museum Forum.
The association issues guidelines for collections care, documentation, and ethical practice drawing on principles found in codes from the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums, and frameworks used by the Smithsonian Institution Archives. Training includes accreditation seminars, conservation certification courses referencing methodologies from the Getty Conservation Institute, and disaster-preparedness drills coordinated with the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Ethics committees review provenance issues related to objects connected to historical events such as the Meiji Restoration and wartime displacements, liaising with legal scholars at University of Tokyo Faculty of Law and heritage bodies like the Cultural Properties Protection Law (1950) stakeholders.
The association publishes journals and bulletins featuring case studies from the Kobori Enshu Garden Museum, cataloguing projects influenced by the practices of the Rijksmuseum, conservation research in partnership with the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Nara, and museum education studies comparing approaches at the National Museum of Art, Tokyo and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Research outputs address exhibition evaluation, audience studies referencing methodologies used at the Tate Modern, digital archiving projects in collaboration with the National Diet Library Digital Collections, and morphological studies with zoological collections at the National Museum of Nature and Science.
International collaboration includes formal links and memoranda with the International Council of Museums, the Asia-Pacific Network of Major Museums, bilateral exchanges with the Smithsonian Institution, joint programs with the British Museum, and participation in conferences hosted by the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The association has facilitated loan agreements involving artifacts from collections such as the Tokyo National Museum, cooperative exhibitions with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and repatriation dialogues connected to protocols developed with the Council of Europe and regional partners across East Asia and Southeast Asia.
Category:Museums in Japan