ABSTRACT
In Japan legal deposit provision is included in the law establishing the National Diet Library. The National Diet Library functions as the national library of Japan, as well as the library of parliament. The law provides for the deposit of the following: ‘books, pamphlets, publications in series; musical notes; maps; works produced by motion picture techniques, phonograph records and works produced by machines designed to reproduce sound mechanically; and works reproduced as documents or charts by printing techniques and other mechanical or chemical processes’. Government publications are specifically dealt with in Japanese legislation. The agencies responsible for depositing are listed as ‘any agency of the Government; agencies of the metropolitan and prefectural governments or similar agencies; agencies of cities, or of corresponding bodies; and agencies of towns, villages, or of corresponding bodies’.
