National Diet Library, National library in Nagatachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
The National Diet Library is a national research library in Nagatachō, Japan, with a main facility in Tokyo and a second location in Kyoto. Both buildings offer expansive reading rooms, catalog areas, and closed stacks that house millions of volumes.
The library opened in June 1948 in the former Akasaka Detached Palace, now the State Guest House, with 100,000 volumes. In 1949 it merged with the former Imperial Library in Ueno, adding a million volumes and becoming Japan's sole national library. It moved to Nagatachō in 1961.
The institution holds large volumes of historical documents and printed works that trace back to early periods of Japanese literature. Visitors can work in reading rooms where quiet focus shapes the rhythm of the day and researchers from across the country sit at shared tables.
The Tokyo Main Library stands next to the National Diet in Nagatachō, and the Kansai-kan serves as the second central facility in Seika Town, Kyoto Prefecture. The general public makes up the largest group of users, and reference inquiries far outnumber research requests from Diet members. Entry to the Tokyo Main Library was restricted to 200 visitors a day by lottery from June 2020 until the limit was lifted on 22 June 2023.
The library's founding preamble, drafted with input from historian Hani Gorō, states that "truth makes us free," a phrase inspired by an inscription he saw at Freiburg University Library and by John 8:32. The words are carved above the book counter on the second floor of the Tokyo Main Library.
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