The National Diet Library of Japan ("Diet" meaning parliament) celebrated its 50th anniversary with Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and other high officials attending.
This library, located close to the Parliament building in Tokyo, was set up on the basis of a special law in 1948 and now holds as many as 6,700,000 books and documents.
A program to add a "digital annex" to this library is in progress to cope with the ever increasing electronic publications.
On June 9 to 20, a commemorative exhibit of "rare old documents" including Chinese and Japanese books and the "Great Japanese Coastal Map"compiled by Tadataka Inou was held at the library.