Doing work on Asian history anywhere outside of a handful of research universities with strong asian collections is always going to be tricky. You will have to do a lot of ILL work, and a lot digging. Still, with a bit of perseverance you can do wonders. Note, however, that all of this takes time. You must get started early.
 

Bibliographies

If you are going to be using ILL you need to know what you are going to request. Bibliographies are the best way to do this.

-Bibliography of Asian Studies [REF] 016.915
    The best resource on any topic in Asian Studies. Now on-line at some libraries, but not this one.
-Japanese History and Culture from Ancient to Modern Times : Seven Basic Bibliographies John W. Dower, Timothy S. George.  Markus Wiener, 1995 ISBN: 1558760970
    Good and quite recent
-Women in Japanese Society,  Kristina Ruth Huber Greenwood Publishing Group, 1993 ISBN: 0313252963
    One of several topical bibliographies

Reference works

-Kodansha encyclopedia of Japan  [REF] 952.003 K816d 23
-Cambridge History of Japan 952 C144a
    Such a a good resource that you will usually find that it is checked out to me and that I am using it to crib lectures from. 

On-line resources
    We get a few of these. JSTOR has Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Journal of Asian Studies, Monumenta Nipponica, and a few other journals.

Places to go
    Pitt has one of the better Asian collections in the country, and thus they are a good place to look for things in English as well. Penn State also has all the basic resources

Getting things to come to you
    Besides regular ILL, don't forget the PALCI system, which is usually quicker and a lot easier to use.