In April 2002, the National Diet Library began to acquire school textbooks issued in Japan. Because of limited storage, the presence of a textbook collection in the National Institute for Educational Policy Research and for other reasons, they have not been collected actively so far. However, the full opening of International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL) in May 2002 has solved the storage problem. Moreover, school textbooks have become more necessary for the ILCL to support the activities of libraries for children and provide services for researchers on children's literature.

With these movements in prospect, NDL consulted with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Textbook Publishers Association of Japan and other related institutions about starting the acquisition of textbooks, putting the legal deposit system into practice. Consequently, with their consent, NDL launched the project in April 2002. 

In FY 2002, the collection starts with elementary and junior high school textbooks and the corresponding guidelines for teachers. Textbooks for high school, schools for the physically challenged and mentally retarded children, except for Braille, and corresponding guidelines for teachers, will be added from FY 2003. At the moment, the whole textbook collection will be composed of publications that are supplied and used at schools in and after FY 2002.