(1923), the Sino-Japanese war, and World War II, led to the stagnation of Japan's museum activities. Japanese art objects had been collected in the Shōsōin (treasure houses) of shrines and temples from the Nara Period on. Artifacts were included in the national hakubutsukan established during the Meiji period, but were not assigned to the distinct category of art museum (bijutsukan 美術館) until after 1945. After WWII Plans for museums that had been put on hold during the war recommenced in the 1950s. The Kyoiku Hakubutsukan became the National Science Museum of Japan (Kokuritsu Kagaku Hakubutsukan 国立科学博物館）in 1949, and the former Monbusho Hakubutsukan became the Tokyo National Museum (Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan 東京国立博物館）in 1952. The government became active in art museum development in the postwar period, opening the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, (Tokyo Kokuritsu Kindai Bijutsukan 東京国立博物館) which housed both Japanese and foreign art. Private museums continued to open after the war. In 1966, the Yamatane Museum of Art and the Idemitsu Art Gallery, both built around private collections, were established. During the 1970s, prefectural and local governmental entities began to found museums and art museums devoted to the traditional arts and crafts or commerce of their individual communities. The 1980s saw a national boom in new art museum development, with 90 new facilities constructed in 1988 alone. Local governments were active in establishing many of these museums. In addition, museums devoted to particular industries were also founded, among them the Electric Energy Museum Denryokukan 電力館, 1984) and the Subway Museum (Chikatetsu Hakubutsukan 地下鉄博物館, 1986). List of Japanese museums See also Groups of Traditional Buildings Prefectural museum References National Museum of Japanese History at intute.ac.uk Japan Links - Culture A Guide to Technical Visits and Industrial Museums in Japan External links Museums fr:Liste des musées au Japon