This article is a translation of the article in Japanese of the same title
in NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 627 (June 2013).

The national budget bill for FY2013 passed the National Diet on May 15, 2013 ¹. The budget appropriated for the NDL for FY2013 (April 2013 - March 2014) consists of the General Account and Special Account for Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the total amount is 18,975,405,000 yen. The General Account is 18,789,561,000 yen. Compared with the initial budget of the previous year, cuts in appropriation for personnel expenses due to the special measure to secure the resources of reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake resulted in a reduction of the General Account by some 750 million yen. The Special Account is 185,844,000 yen.

The composition of total budget is:

• Personnel expenses: 44.1% (47.3% in FY2012)
• Acquisition of library materials: 12.3% (12.0% in FY2012)
• Costs for information systems: 15.9% (14.1% in FY2012)
• Office expenses: 18.0% (17.5% in FY2012)
• Facilities: 8.7% (8.4% in FY2012)
• Special Account for Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake: 1.0% (0.7% in FY2012)

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Major expenditures of the budget for FY2013 are as follows:

A digital archiving system to collect, preserve and distribute digital information has been built up since FY2005. Approximately 67 million yen was included in the General Account in FY2013 for developing the capacity to collect privately published free online materials (e.g. digital books and periodicals provided through the Internet for free) which the NDL is required to do per a June 2012 revision to the NDL Law. Additionally, in response to a June 2012 revision of the Copyright Act, which allows the NDL to automate transmission of out-of-print materials digitized by the NDL to libraries and other organizations, approximately 79 million yen was included in the General Account for the development of features to implement this service together with related functionality for digital rights management.

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The NDL started full-scale operation of the Great East Japan Earthquake Archive "HINAGIKU (http://kn.ndl.go.jp),” which is intended to collect various records relating to the Great East Japan Earthquake and pass them on to future generations as lessons of the disaster. In FY2013, as a necessary expense to operate this archive and related uses, approximately 120 million yen was approved within the framework of the General Account and 186 million yen within that of the Special Account for Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake.

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3.1 Reinforcing the Main Building of the Tokyo Main Library against earthquakes

To strengthen the structure of the Main Building of the Tokyo Main Library against earthquakes, a renovating cost amounting to approximately 246 million yen was appropriated for the fifth year of this five-year project within the framework of the General Account.

3.2 Expansion of the International Library of Children’s Literature

Approximately 1,196 million yen was appropriated to construct the annex building of the International Library of Children’s Literature (ILCL). This five-year project is intended to improve the ILCL’s function as the national center of children’s literature, and FY2013 is the third year.

3.3 Exploration and design for the second stage of the Kansai-kan construction

To be ready for fill-up of the stacks both in the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan expected in the end of FY2017, the NDL is planning to construct stacks in the Kansai-kan as the second stage of the Kansai-kan construction. Approximately 22 million yen within the framework of the General Account was appropriated to conduct soil exploration during the first year of this three-year project to explore and design.

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Amounts of National Diet Library’s FY2013 Expenditure Budget (1,000yen)

General Account

Special Account for Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake

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