"Asahi Shimbun Cross-Search for Library" is the largest newspaper article database in Japan, permitting searches of 16 million articles and advertisements from more than 140 years of the newspaper, from its first edition in 1879 to today. Access to the database is limited to 8 users shared among the consortium of currently ten (10) participating institutions.
Coverage includes over 8,000,000 full-text articles as of January, 2009 from 1945 to the present. Currently viewable are full-text articles from 1985 to the present, clipped images from 2005 to the present, and entire page images from 1945 to 1989. It is searchable by keyword in the full-text module from 1985 to the present and in the page image from 1945 to 1984. The page image between 1985 and 1989 is searchable only by date.