General Information on Code Numbers applied to identify Japanese Books

SC i.e. SHOSEKI CODE:

Used during 1970-1980*, an original Japanese code developed and used by NIHON SHOSEKI SHUPPAN KYOKAI (League of publishers) and NIHON SHUPPAN TORITSUGI KYOKAI (League of distributors). 

*The code structure combined (Category Decimals  - Publisher's ID - Book's  unique ID). *The book categorization in Japan has been systemized and standardized as Nippon Decimal Classification (NDC) originally developed since late 1920's by private groups of librarians after Melvil Dewey's method and said to have been improved later partially adopting Charles Ammi Cutter's newer method. * More detailed structure of, for example,  0072 in above sample case is said to be reflecting the first zero showing the targeted readers (for general or for specialized, or for children, etc), second zero the way how the publication was shaped (in a single volume or in set volumes, or with magnetic medias like cassette tapes, or else, etc), and then comes the NDC category decimals of 72 for pictorial art including photography.

ISBN i.e. International Standard Book Number

Applied in Japan since 1981 based on ISO 2108-1978. (Japan's country number is 4, which comes first in ISBN)

NTC i.e. NIHON TOSHO CODE:

Applied since 1981 based on ISBN system with additional Category Sub Code (C Code: C0072 is the category number for photography books), and Price Sub Code (E Code:  yen price ending with E)  /  inacted since 1988*  by JIS: Japan Industrial Standards JIS X 0305-1988  /  developed since 1991 into the present form using bar code description, which is also called JAN (Japan Article Number) Code.

* What consists of NTC's Category Sub Code is based upon NDC clasification as it has been in the case of SC (SHOSEKI CODE). Here is some helpful imformation to know how the latest version of NDC dicimals classify the book categories in most Japanese libraries: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ax2s-kmtn/ref/ndc/e_ndc.html (Cyber Librarian)

NTC/JAN CODE including 13 DIGIT REVISED ISBN:

Applied since January 2007.

• The ISBN changed from 10 to 13 digits after 1 January 2007 in Japan
• Existed ISBNs have been prefixed by 978-
• Japanese books do not include parallel description of existed / new ISBNs (like ISBN10: / ISBN13: 978-), but only new 13 digits.

* Through 1981-1988 period, though SC (SHOSEKI CODE) was no more newly issued, still some publishers seemed to have kept using it, before they successfully acquired ISBN identification numbers. We can see some examples listed on our site.

* Other than above mentioned codes, there are code systems for Japanese magazines. First system developed by TOKYO SHUPPAN HAMBAI (a distributor) in 1954 was called IBM CODE. Since 1968 almost the same system was refined and called  ZC i.e. ZASSHI CODE. 

* * *

Above are the general rules for Japanese books in general. However, for not small number of  photography books published during 1960 -1980 period, which our web site is listing, none of the three types of book codes were applied. For, the books published  in the 1960s, none of the code systems have started yet. And for other groups of books, these codes had little importance, as they were mostly published by the photographers themselves in small limited edition, often as many as 500 copies, and only distributed through their own human relations. (GJ*)

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