The committee's jurisdiction was established by parliamentary procedure and set to deliberate matters under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Members of the committee are appointed by the House of Councillors (Diet Law Article 42, clause 1).
Members of the committee are nominated by the President (The Rules of the House of Councillors Article 30, clause 1).
In practice, each political group is allocated seats on the committee in proportion to the number of seats it has in the House of Councillors and then each political group decides which of its members will be assigned to the committee.
The chairperson of the committee is elected from among the members of the committee (Diet Law 25, clause 1) or selected by the President (The Rules of the House of Councillors Article 16, clause 2), but the latter happens most of the time.