Language: Bilingual in English and Japanese
Points worthy of special mention in this revision are the drastic change of taxonomy reflecting the latest developments of molecular phylogeny, and the addition of an abundance of newly recorded species and subspecies. This Check-List consists of two parts: Lists of birds occurred naturally inside Japan (633 species) and birds introduced and breeding in Japan (43 species). The sixth edition made only minimal changes from the traditional taxonomy of the fifth edition, judging that research of taxonomic systems had been in a transition period. During 12 years after the publication of the sixth edition, as even more refined molecular technique has further accumulated achievements and there has been a fair amount of consensus among results from research with different techniques and independent characters. Accordingly, the 7th edition has completely changed the arrangement of orders, and the families that constitute these orders, in comparison with previous editions.