Work of the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau

The Research and Legislative Reference Bureau (RLRB) is a legislative support department within the NDL to provide Diet Members with reliable information and analysis on a wide range of national policy issues in a prompt, apt, objective, confidential and nonpartisan manner.

RLRB offers comprehensive research on various issues at Diet Members' request.

• RLRB provides fact-finding research, clarification of issues, analysis and evaluation on a diverse range of national policy issues including politics, economy, society, culture, and science & technology.
• For interdisciplinary policy issues, researchers from various research areas work together.
• RLRB conducts analysis of both pending legislation and possible future legislative issues and policies from a mid- and long-term perspective. RLRB also conducts research on how policies and institutions have been developed in the past.
• RLRB places great importance on research and analysis on legislation, institutions and policies in foreign countries.
• From abundant resources of information, RLRB introduces opinions from various walks of life and groups, and also introduces academic views related to national policy issues.

RLRB provides original reports and research papers on issues of current or future interest.
One of the major projects in the research is "Interdisciplinary Research" which is conducted on wide-ranging interdisciplinary issues. In an interdisciplinary research project, researchers from various research areas conduct field studies, and then collaborate in a multidisciplinary environment to prepare detailed explanations of complicated and interdisciplinary policy issues. RLRB also carries out the "Science and Technology Research Project" to make the most of its human resources who specialize in scientific techniques.