1. Regarding the stance of the e-book distribution experiment of the Agency for Cultural Affairs

In 2010, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) together held "Panel Discussions Promoting Beneficial Use of Publications for a Digital Network Society." The MEXT also organized “Review Meetings on Facilitation of Distribution and Use of the e-book” between 2010 and 2011.
The e-book distribution experiment initiated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (ACA) in FY2012 is a response to those discussions: a model project for studying challenges on beneficial use of the National Diet Library’s (NDL) digitized contents by private services. The NDL is partaking in the project by providing its digital data.

2. Regarding the NDL’s actions

The NDL is striving to expand the use of its digitized contents.
As a part of this effort, based on the amendment of the copyright law of Japan in 2012, the preparation to provide digital reproductions of out-of-print books and magazines to the public libraries to be perused by anyone using the computers of those libraries has been under way. In order to realize the scheme, the NDL is carrying out consultations with associations of publishers and rights holders.