PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY:

There has been 100 years of work in Japan on benthic foraminifera; these are one celled shelled protozoans that live exclusively in marine environments. They are commonly used in applications as varied as serving as time markers in the petroleum industry to indicators of pollution levels in modern estuarine environments. This paper illustrates most of the Neogene forms described from Japan in the last 100 years. We use a technique called Scanning Light Microscopy that eliminates the depth of field problem which, often occurs when attempting to illustrate these meiofauna—too large for standard microscopes, too small for standard photography. There are 145 species illustrated in color to show the reader what the specimens look like under a dissecting microscope. The purpose is to expose the rest of the world to these species, many of which are synonymous with more commonly known forms described from the Atlantic.  In some cases the Atlantic forms were described before the Japanese forms (and vice versa), so the earlier scientific names of these fossils are here given priority. Also described and illustrated here for the first time are three species by Takayanagi, the first species to be described in an electronic format.