Patent ID: 7973882

Claim:
A liquid crystal display device, comprising: a liquid crystal layer in which an electrical field is applied in a direction parallel to a first substrate, whereby a liquid crystal molecule rotates in a plane predominantly parallel to the first substrate, in which respective absorption axes of the first substrate, which is provided with a first polarizing plate on a light-input side, and a second substrate, which is provided with a second polarizing plate, are substantially perpendicular, and an optical axis of the liquid crystal molecule is oriented so as to be substantially parallel to the first substrate or the second substrate and substantially parallel to the absorption axis of the first polarizing plate; a matrix-drive electrode group, in which a pixel electrode for individual pixels and a shared electrode are positioned on a side near the liquid crystal layer of one substrate among the first substrate and the second substrate; and a rear-surface illuminating device, wherein the first polarizing plate and the second polarizing plate have a first supporting-substrate material on at least a liquid-crystal layer side of a polarizing layer of one of the first polarizing plate and the second polarizing plate and have a second supporting-substrate material on at least a liquid-crystal layer side of a polarizing layer of the other of the first polarizing plate and the second polarizing plate; the first supporting-substrate material has an Nz coefficient of 4 or more and has a birefringence so that an in-plane or thickness-direction retardation is 10 nm or more; and the second supporting-substrate material is optically isotropic so that the in-plane or thickness-direction retardation is less than 10 nm.