National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, known as NAOJ, is Japan's national center of astronomical research and an inter-university research institute that promotes the open use of its observing facilities by researchers throughout Japan while encouraging flexible international cooperation. It was established on 1 July 1988 by reorganizing the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory together with the Latitude Observatory in Mizusawa and related units, and it was later incorporated as an inter-university research institute corporation. Its lineage runs back to the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory of 1888 and to the Asakusa Observatory, where regular celestial observations began in 1782. It operates the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea in Hawaii and the Nobeyama Radio Observatory in Nagano.