Information retrieval (IR) in large textual databases is a very active field where competition is harsh and progress rapid. The discipline has known a breakthrough with the creation of the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) held every year since 1991 in the USA with grants from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In 1997, 51 groups from 12 countries participated in the seventh TREC conference. Whereas only one Japanese group (NEC) presented a result for the contest, several researchers from different research institutes in fact participated to this team's efforts. A similar competition is to be organized in Japan from 1999, but the textual database will consist of Japanese texts.