A description of the structure and approach of a workshop held to identify and explore important issues relating to the future of Japanese collections in academic and research libraries is provided, as well as eight papers presented at the workshop together with written reactions to the papers by other workshop participants. Topics covered include: (1) the current status and directions of Japanese studies; (2) the current status of collections supporting Japanese studies; (3) the management and organization of Japanese collections; (4) the book market in Japan and the acquisition program of the Library of Congress; (5) Japanese libraries for Japanese Studies, focusing on libraries in general and special collections on literature, history, and the social sciences; (6) the case of Japanese collections as an emerging issue in national resource sharing, including problems of access and coordinated collection development, the National Periodicals Center, and the Center for Research Libraries; (7) a view of resource sharing from a smaller collection; and (8) the regional level of resource sharing. Many papers contain references and tables. Three appendices provide workshop results and recommendations, a list of participants, and part one of a doctoral dissertation on Japan, which gives a statistical and analytical overview of current trends. (RBF)