Suppose I'm writing a novel that takes place N years ago, say N = 80. Given
the dramatic increase of loanwords in the past century, especially from
English, what would be the best way (if there is any) to know whether a word
existed at all and how commonly was it used at the time?

For material things, eg related to technology, this would obviously trivial. I
am referring here to more abstract concepts, such as adjectives and nouns like
ポピュラー、リーズナブル、カラフル、デリケート、ドキュメント、コミットメント、イベント, and so on.

One way I can think of is to check dictionaries published around the time the
story takes place. However, this could be technically difficult and not
necessarily precise. Is there any other way? To rephrase the question, what is
a good way to understand when a new word has been officially introduced and
became mainstream? Before Google of course.
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words loanwords dictionary
How would I know whether a word existed and was commonly used N years ago?
BCCWJ is a corpus of written Japanese and you can search it
[here](http://www.kotonoha.gr.jp/shonagon/). Type the word in the search box
and you can see the published year of the texts in which the word was used.
However, it focuses on contemporary Japanese and doesn't include texts before
1971.

[CHJ](http://pj.ninjal.ac.jp/corpus_center/chj/) is a corpus of written
Japanese from Nara period to Taisho period (~1925). However, you have to fill
out an application form to use it.
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[青空文庫](https://www.aozora.gr.jp/) is a library of public-domain literary
works, and it mainly consists of novels written between 1870 and 1950. I often
use this [full-text search](https://www.joao-roiz.jp/AOZORA/) to check how a
certain word was used around the Meiji - middle Showa era.
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