Colonization, globalization of the economy, and commercialization of culture have resulted in the rise and fall of paintings, music, visual images, and audio visual materials that have historically been regarding lightly as objects of academic studies. The Visual Material Archives Group aims to collect and catalogue such material as academic resources to establish a dynamic research field that enables researchers to look into politics, economy, and culture through these visual materials. Multiple themes will be designated as illustrations, comics and animation materials being collected and prepared for social and cultural environmental analysis on the context in which these materials are used. A research project manager will be designated who will be given a wide scope of vision centered on Asia with collaborators and research fellos to determine a collection plan and analysis methodologies.

In the first year, the Visual Material Archives Group will focus on comics. The Group will collect comics being based on historical stories in India and summarize their contents. Meanwhile, the collection of comics from East Asia will commence and a focal point will be established to compare them with comics of Japan. Furthermore, as a part of the referencing plan from next year onwards, the Visual Material Archives Group will collect illustrations and photographs on images of Asia in Europe.

The Visual Material Archives Group will secure a repository within the University and offer access to the images to researchers who are interested. The progress of collection activities will be publicized on a website.

In addition, the Visual Material Archives Group will invite researchers on comics and comics-related topics to consider the potential of furthering their views, that is, comics as reference materials. From next year onwards, the Visual Material Archives Group will hold small workshops in preparation for an international symposium on comics and animations.