[COFF] Japanese Computing History Books/Memoirs?

[COFF] Japanese Computing History Books/Memoirs?

[segaloco via COFF]

Hello, today I received in the mail a book I ordered apparently by one of the engineers at Sega responsible for their line of consoles.  It's all in Japanese but based on the little I know plus tables in the text, it appears to be fairly technical and thorough.  I'm excited to start translating it and see what lies within.

In any case, it got me thinking about what company this book might have as far as Japanese literature concerning computing history there, or even just significant literature in general regarding Japanese computer history.  While we are more familiar with IBM, DEC, workstations, minis, etc. the Japanese market had their own spate of different systems such as NEC's various "PCs" (not PC-compats, PC-68, PC-88, PC-98), Sharp X68000, MSX(2), etc. and then of course Nintendo, Sega, NEC, Hudson, and the arcade board manufacturers.  My general experience is that Japanese companies are significantly more tight-lipped about everything than those in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries, going so far as to require employees to use pseudonyms in any sort of credits to prevent potential poaching.  As such, first-party documentation for much of this stuff is incredibly difficult to come by, and secondary materials and memoirs and such, in my experience at least, are virtually non-existent.  However, that is also from my perspective here across the seas trying to research an obscure, technical subject in my non-native tongue.  Anyone here have a particular eye for Japanese computing?  If so, I'd certainly be interested in some discussion, doesn't need to be on list either.

- Matt G.