Who's behind the news?
Who's behind the news?
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Newsjunkie.net is a resource guide for journalists. We show who's behind the news, and provide tools to help navigate the modern business of information.
Use of Data
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The RIKEN Archives is the commemorative and historical documentation collection maintained by RIKEN (Rikagaku Kenkyūsho), Japan's national Institute of Physical and Chemical Research. The archives preserve publications, historical records, and commemorative materials documenting RIKEN's institutional history since its founding in 1917. Materials are accessible through RIKEN's public relations and publications pages on its official website.
RIKEN was formally founded on 20 March 1917 as a private foundation in the Komagome district of Tokyo, following advocacy by industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa and researcher Jokichi Takamine. Its first director was the mathematician Baron Dairoku Kikuchi. The institution was modeled on Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm Society and was established to advance Japan's capacity for pure scientific research in physics and chemistry.
Under its third director Masatoshi Okochi, appointed in 1921, RIKEN transformed its structure and eventually established the Riken Concern — a zaibatsu of spin-off companies that commercialized research discoveries. At its height in the late 1930s, the conglomerate comprised 63 companies. RIKEN was dissolved as a private foundation following World War II, re-emerged as a private company (Kaken) in 1948, and was reconstituted as a public corporation in 1958 when the Diet passed the RIKEN Law. Since 1963, RIKEN's main campus has been located in Wakō, Saitama Prefecture, on the outskirts of Tokyo.
Today RIKEN is a Designated National Research and Development Agency with approximately 3,000 scientists across seven campuses in Japan, an annual budget of approximately ¥100 billion, and research spanning physics, chemistry, biology, genomics, medical science, engineering, and high-performance computing.
The RIKEN Archives hold commemorative materials compiled in connection with major institutional milestones, including publications produced for RIKEN's 50th, 80th, and centennial (2017) anniversaries. The centennial publication, A Century of Discovery: The History of RIKEN, is available online and traces the institution from its 1917 foundation to the present. The archives also include pamphlets, annual reports, and multimedia content documenting RIKEN's research contributions and key historical figures.
A separate but related collection is the RAI Music Archive at RIKEN's Turin Auditorium (not to be confused with the Italian broadcaster RAI). At RIKEN's Wako campus, commemorative stone inscriptions marking the discovery of element 113 (nihonium) form part of the institutional commemorative record. Historical portrait galleries of significant RIKEN researchers are maintained on the website.
Commemorative publications and historical materials are accessible through RIKEN's News and Publications portal at https://www.riken.jp/en/news_pubs/pubs/. Selected publications, including A Century of Discovery, are available as downloadable PDFs. Physical access to institutional archival records may be arranged through RIKEN's public relations office at the Wako headquarters.