Liquid crystal display device

A liquid crystal display apparatus, comprising in an order from a viewer side:

• a liquid crystal panel including a liquid crystal cell, a viewer-side polarizing plate arranged on the viewer side of the liquid crystal cell, and a back surface-side polarizing plate arranged on an opposite side to the viewer side of the liquid crystal cell;
• a light control layer configured to enable a scattering state of transmitted light to be changed;
• and
• a surface light source device including a light source unit and a light guide plate configured to cause light from the light source unit to enter from a side surface opposed to the light source unit, and to emit the light from a viewer-side surface opposed to the light control layer,
• wherein the surface light source device is configured to emit light which has directivity in an approximately normal direction of the viewer-side surface, and which contains a linearly polarized light component that vibrates in a plane approximately parallel to a light guide direction of light of the light guide plate at a high ratio, and
• wherein a vibration direction of the linearly polarized light component is approximately parallel to a transmission axis of the back surface-side polarizing plate.