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About Us

The National Diet Library (NDL) is the parliamentary library of the National Diet of Japan and was founded in 1948 by the National Diet Library Law, in accordance with Article 130 of the Diet Law, which states in part that "The National Diet Library shall be established in the Diet by a separate law, in order to assist Diet Members in their study and research."

Picture of the National Diet Building

Mission and Roles

The mission and role of the NDL is stipulated by the National Diet Library Law.

Mission
"The NDL is hereby established as a result of the firm conviction that truth makes us free and with the object of contributing to international peace and the democratization of Japan as promised in our Constitution."
(From the Preamble of the National Diet Library Law)
Role
"The National Diet Library shall collect books and other library materials for the purpose of assisting the members of the National Diet in the performance of their duties and also for the roles of providing certain library services as hereinafter specified for the executive and judicial agencies of the national government and for the people of Japan."
(From Article 2 of the National Diet Library Law)

The NDL is tasked with the following basic roles.

Supporting the National Diet
Acquiring, cataloging, and preserving materials and information
Providing access to information resources
Cooperation with affiliated institutions

Greetings from the Director General

YOSHINAGA Motonobu, the 17th Director General welcomes you to the National Diet Library's website.

National Diet Library, Vision 2021–2025: The Digital Shift at the National Diet Library

NDL Profile

The National Diet Library Law

Policy

This page introduces the National Diet Library's basic policy documents.

Activity Performance Evaluation

The evaluation reports to assess the progress in achieving NDL objectives.

The results of annual user surveys.

Annual Report of the National Diet Library

You can read the Annual Reports that summarize the NDL activities of each fiscal year.(Japanese only)

Services for the National Diet

An outline of the NDL's Research and Legislative Reference Bureau.

Services for the Executive & Judicial Agencies

Library services for the executive and judicial agencies.

Material Acquisition, Preservation

This explains the legal deposit system.

This page introduces our policy and methods for acquisition of materials.

This page introduces the preservation activities of the NDL.

Organization of Science and Technology Information

This page introduces the organization of science and technology information of the NDL.

International Cooperation

This page outlines NDL's international cooperation activities.

Digital Library Projects

Protection of Personal Information

This page introduces the treatment of personal information of the NDL.

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