History

The NDL has two origins: one is the libraries of the House of Peers and the House of Representatives in the former Imperial Diet established in 1890; and the other is the Imperial Library established in 1872 under the Ministry of Education.
Most of these collections were transferred to the present NDL.

Prior to the establishment of the NDL, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the House of Councillors invited a U.S. library mission to Japan in 1947. Based on the advice of the U.S. library experts, a basic NDL plan was drawn up which eventually led to the National Diet Library Law.

In June 1948, the NDL was opened to the public using the Akasaka Detached Palace (now the State Guest House). In August 1961, upon completion of Phase 1 of the library construction at the current Nagata-cho site, the NDL started its full service as Japan's foremost library with a stock of some two million books including collections transferred from the former Ueno Library, Branch of the NDL (former Imperial Libraｒy), and others.
In 1968, the 20th anniversary year from the opening, the present NDL Main Building was erected. In response to continuing increase of collections, the adjacent Annex was completed in 1986 to accommodate a combined total of 12 million volumes.

In October 2002, the Kansai-kan was opened in the Kansai Science City (Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto Prefecture).
The former Ueno Library, Branch of the NDL, was transformed into the International Library of Children's Literature (the first national children's library), which was partly opened in May 2000 and was fully open in May 2002.

*For details, please refer to the brief history of the NDL on the Japanese-language website.

• Brief history of the NDL (in Japanese)
• Ownership stamp