Aozora Bunko

Aozora Bunko (青空文庫, literally the "Blue Sky Library", also known as the "Open Air Library") is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-of-copyright books or works that the authors wish to make freely available.

Aozora Bunko was created on the Internet in 1997 to provide broadly available, free access to Japanese literary works whose copyrights had expired.

The driving force behind the project was one man—Michio Tomita—who was motivated by the simple belief that people with a common interest should cooperate with each other.^[4]

In Japan, Aozora Bunko is considered similar to Project Gutenberg.^[5]
 
Since its inception in 1997, Aozora Bunko has been both the compiler and publisher of an evolving online catalog.^[2] In 2006, Aozora Bunko organized to add a role as a public policy advocate to protect its current and anticipated catalog of freely accessible e-books.^[3]