The Main Building of the National Diet Library is seen in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward in 2022. (Mainichi/Naoki Watanabe)
The Mainichi Shimbun answers some questions readers may have about the National Diet Library, where ruling and opposition party executives reportedly met for talks behind closed doors while deliberations of the fiscal 2025 budget bill were underway in the Diet in February.
Question: What sort of place is the National Diet Library?
Answer: It’s the only national library in Japan, and affiliated with the National Diet. As of the end of fiscal 2023, there were 47,531,625 items across the Tokyo Main Library, the Kansai-kan in Kyoto and the International Library of Children’s Literature in Ueno, also in the capital. While the library provides resources for the general public, it also carries the unique role of assisting Diet members in their parliamentary activities.
Q: How does the library support Diet members’ activities?
A: Upon requests by lawmakers, the library conducts studies using its collection, and compiles the results of research and study on national political issues to present to the Diet. While members of the Diet collect necessary data from ministries and agencies, as well as from the research offices of both chambers of the Diet, one opposition party lawmaker said they often use the National Diet Library when they want to dive deep into the information. Materials are also provided across research subjects.
Q: Why has the library been chosen as a spot for secret meetings?
A: With multiple entrances and exits and private rooms that lawmakers can use, the facility provides a respite from the media and others related to the surrounding Nagatacho political district. It also provides them plausible deniability if found meeting, as they can insist that they were just there to browse materials. When lawmakers are spotted entering the library, it causes a buzz that they may be having “secret talks,” like when Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he was “browsing books” during a roughly hourlong visit on April 2, but it’s also true that some visit the library to fully prepare for questions to be posed in the Diet, among other tasks.
(Japanese original by Mizuki Tomi, Political News Department)
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