“Wikipedia in Osaka Labor Archive”

On March 8, 2025, I participated in “Wikipedia in Osaka Labor Archive” at Osaka Labor Archive in Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.

What is Osaka Labor Archive?

Osaka Labor Archive is a special library on the subject of labor. Its official name in Japanese is the 大阪産業労働資料館 (Osaka Industrial Labor Museum). This facility is known as a special library, but its English name is Osaka Labor Archive, and it has the characteristics of not only a library but also an archive.

Its high level of expertise as a special library has been recognized, and in 2016 it won the Excellence Award at the Library of the Year in Japan. In addition, in the trial of the Kansai Ready-Mixed Concrete Workers’ Union, in which the Kyoto District Court handed down a not guilty verdict on February 26, 2025, the union’s lawyers used materials held by the Osaka Labor Archive.

Archive Tour

In the morning, we listened to an explanation of Wikipedia by lecturer Kazuto Aoki (professor at the Fukui Prefectural University) and Miya.m (veteran Wikipedian), and then we had a tour of the archives guided by Director Kayoko Taniai.

The Osaka Labor Archive has a literary magazine, “Senki” (War Flag), from June 1929. This issue contains the first appearance of Takiji Kobayashi’s “Kani Kosen” and many other works, and although the editors have omitted many characters such as “xx”, the magazine was ultimately banned. The Osaka Labor Archive is the only public library in Japan that has this issue.

The participants included several university librarians, school librarians, and university professors in library and information science and other fields. If these people learn about the significance and characteristics of Wikipedia, edit articles in their own fields of expertise, and teach students how to use Wikipedia in their own classes, it will surely be a positive outcome for the Wikimedia Foundation’s projects. Some of the students were from universities in Osaka Prefecture, and it was wonderful to see them eager to participate in such extracurricular activities while still students.

Wikipedia edit

In the afternoon, we edited Wikipedia in the reading room. The organizers presented several topics, and after the participants chose their preferred topic, they split into several groups to conduct literature research and edit Wikipedia. I provided some support to the other participants and worked on adding to the Wikipedia page about Sanji Muto, who served as president of Kanebo from the late Meiji period to the early Showa period.

I have no knowledge of labor issues or social movements. The topics presented by the organizers included the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan and the Fujinagata Shipyard Dispute, but I thought that if I tackled these topics without any prior knowledge, I might end up posting inaccurate descriptions on the web, so I chose an article about a person that is easy to tackle even with little prior knowledge.

Muto was from Aichi Prefecture (where I live), and I once read an explanation introducing Muto as a local hero at Kaizu City Hirata Library. There is a bronze statue of Muto at Hirata Library, and I once took a photo of the statue and uploaded it to Wikimedia Commons.

The core of the existing article on Muto Sanji is a major addition made 14 years ago in 2011. The author seems to know Muto’s career well, but the citations seem lax compared to the current standards for citing sources required by Wikipedia in 2025.

Wikipedia requires that all text be cited as a rule, and different standards are required than for academic papers. I found the Complete Works of Muto in the National Diet Library Digital Collection, which describes Muto’s career in chronological order, and added text to the existing description while supplementing the sources.

In addition, the bronze statue of Muto in Kaizu City was made by the famous sculptor Fumio Asakura, but the existing article did not provide any explanation of the statue. When I searched for it on Asahi Shimbun Cross Search, I found that the statue was moved to Kaizu City due to various circumstances, including the deterioration of Kanebo’s performance, so I added a sentence to the end of the biography section.

Muto, who was also a journalist, had many enemies in political and business circles, and was shot to death by an unemployed man in 1934. I searched for an article about Muto’s shooting on the Kobe University Library Newspaper Article Collection website, added text about the circumstances of the shooting, and added images of newspaper articles that are in the public domain (PD). Both the Asahi Shimbun Cross Search and the Kobe University Library Newspaper Article Collection were copied from research methods used by other participants. There is a lot to learn from events with many information search professionals.

Edited articles by all participants

Newly created:

“History of the Social Labor Movement in Osaka” (大阪社会労働運動史)

Osaka Social Movement Association (大阪社会運動協会)

Additions to existing articles:

Labor Archive (大阪産業労働資料館)

General Council of Trade Unions of Japan (日本労働組合総評議会)

Fujinagata Shipyards (藤永田造船所)

Muto Sanji (武藤山治)

Exchange of opinions

In the exchange of opinions after the editing was finished, the question “What kind of person can create a standalone article on Wikipedia?” was asked, leading to a heated discussion between the instructor and other Wikipedians. The instructor, Miya.m, presented “Wikipedia:Notability” and answered that a standalone article can be created for a person who has “significant mentions in reliable sources unrelated to the subject,” but the questioner did not seem to be completely convinced.

Wikipedia:Notability is a “guideline” in Wikipedia’s rules, and is said to be “something that many users basically agree on and are recommended to follow.” Under this guideline, the notability of each person is judged for each field and discussion, and in some cases it is difficult to say that it is consistent. In a sense it can be said to be inconsistent, which can be confusing for new participants, but I think it is the best guideline considering the characteristics of Wikipedia.