rick@cs.arizona.edu (Rick Schlichting) (06/13/91)
[Dr. David Kahaner is a numerical analyst visiting Japan for two-years
under the auspices of the Office of Naval Research-Asia (ONR/Asia).
The following is the professional opinion of David Kahaner and in no
way has the blessing of the US Government or any agency of it. All
information is dated and of limited life time. This disclaimer should
be noted on ANY attribution.]
[Copies of previous reports written by Kahaner can be obtained from
host cs.arizona.edu using anonymous FTP.]
To: Distribution
From: David K. Kahaner, ONR Asia [kahaner@xroads.cc.u-tokyo.ac.jp]
Re: Proposal for joint research project on retrieval of Japanese databases
12 June 1991
This file is named "dbpcj"
ABSTRACT. A proposal by Database Promotion Center, Japan for a joint
research project on retrieval of Japanese databases is summarized.
The Database Promotion Center (DPC), Japan
World Trade Center Building
2-4-1 Hamamatu-cho
Minato-ku
Tokyo 105 Japan
Tel: +81-3-3459-8581, Fax: +81-3-3432-7558
is planning a two year research project with interested foreign partners
in order to develop a system for retrieval of Japanese database
information by use of English (or other non-Japanese) language queries.
See also my report (database, 11 Oct 1990).
As of 1990, there were over 650 original databases created and available
in Japan. Eighty-eight percent are described using Japanese (kanji).
This makes them essentially inaccessible to non-Japanese speakers, and
adds to the sense that Japanese information is closed to Westerners.
Providing databases in English within Japan is expensive and the market
within Japan is seen as small. The eventual solution to this is to
employ intelligent machine translation, and this is an active research
area. There are also some commercialized systems but their performance
has thus far been limited.
DPC would like to improve this situation in the short run, by allowing
non-Japanese speakers to query Japanese databases in English or other
languages. The plan is for a two year project 1991-1993 which will
* Define the specifications for a retrieval system
* Develop a prototype system and make it available to overseas users
(the system is planned to run on a workstation or a PC)
* Release a report on the project.
Foreign organizations are encouraged to participate by
* Accepting Japanese researchers within the participating organization
* Attending committee meetings
(international transportation to be provided by DPC)
* Using and evaluate the prototype system for about 3 months.
Readers should note that this proposal relates to the query language. It
does NOT imply that response from the English queries will be in English,
and thus does not appear to me to provide much additional access.
However, the Japanese research assistant in my office felt it would help
somewhat in that one level of translation would be eliminated. This is a
very small step forward, but perhaps it can be achieved within two years.
For further information, contact either Mr. Keisuke Okuzumi or Mr.
Hiroyuki Endo at DPC.
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