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."

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 purpose 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 four basic roles.

Supporting the National Diet

Acquiring, cataloging, and preserving materials and information

Providing access to information resources

Cooperating with affiliated institutions

• Mission and Roles

KURATA Keiko, the 18th Director General welcomes you to the National Diet Library's website.

• Greetings from the Director General

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

• History
• Buildings & Equipment

• Organization, Staff, and Budget
• Statistics
• Annual Report of the National Diet Library
• NDL Pamphlets
• The 70th Anniversary of the National Diet Library
  (link to Web Archiving Project (WARP))

• National Diet Library Law

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

• Policy

• Activity Performance Evaluation

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

• User Surveys

The results of annual user surveys.

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

• Annual Report of the National Diet Library

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

• Services for the Diet

Library services for executive and judicial agencies.

• Services for Executive & Judicial Agencies

• Legal Deposit System

This explains the legal deposit system.

• Acquisition and Collection Development

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

• Preservation and Conservation

This page introduces the preservation activities of the NDL.

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

• Organizing Information on Science and Technology

This page outlines NDL's international cooperation activities.

• International Cooperation

An outline of the NDL's digital library projects.

• Digital Library Projects
• Ensuring long-term preservation and usability of digital information
• Digitization of library materials
• Cooperation with other institutions
• Standards for Digital Information

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

• Protection of Personal Information