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CONTEMPORARY JAPAN 2019, VOL. 31, NO. 1, 1 https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2019.1572970 EDITORIAL Dear reader, Allow me to use this opportunity to update you about the recent developments of Contemporary Japan. 2018 marked not only the journal’s thirtieth anniversary, it also proved in many respects to be a successful year. First, it should be mentioned that CJ became included in Scopus, the largest scientific citation and abstract databank for peer-reviewed academic literature. This achievement represents another milestone in the journal’s international recognition. It offers additional value to our authors from publishing with us, because many faculties and funding organiza- tions pay attention to whether journals are indexed by Scopus when assessing the level of scholarship of publications. CJ can now be accessed by more than 2400 institutions worldwide. Accessibility is the foundation of growth. In 2018, we achieved more than 20,000 full text article downloads, a 40% increase compared to the roughly 12,000 downloads in 2017. We also received 42 submissions from eight countries, which continued the growth trend of the last two years. In 2018, CJ launched a best paper award. Targeted are the articles published over the two previous years, in this case 2016 and 2017. The assessment, which is