The Japanese poster collection contains 46 posters on the following topics: Japanese products and design; railways, ocean liners and tourism; Japanese art and design exhibitions; Japanese imperial modernity (including colonies in Korea, Manchuria, and northeastern China); and Japanese Ministry and Telecommunications campaigns. The posters reflect both Japanese painting techniques (nihonga) and Western painting techniques (yōga).

Pictorial styles range from neo-traditionalism derived from woodblock prints (ukiyoe) to modernism. The prominence of beautiful women (bijin) as an aesthetic category in the collection is of note. Most of the posters were produced using the offset lithographic printing technique. The posters were created by prominent designers, commissioned by large Japanese corporations and government ministries, and produced by Japan's major offset printing companies.

See also the finding aid.