A document state management system includes circuitry configured to receive registration of a document, and a memory to store first information and second information. The first information retains identification information of the document in association with a document state relating to the document. The second information retains tracing data for tracing the document state of the document in association with the identification information of the document. The circuitry records the tracing data in a medium and output the medium. The circuitry acquires the tracing data from the medium. The circuitry acquires, from the second information, the identification information of the document associated with the tracing data acquired from the medium. The circuitry acquires, from the first information, the document state of the document associated with the identification information of the document acquired from the second information. The circuitry outputs the document state acquired from the first information.