PURPOSE: To obtain high contrast without losing whiteness of the display by successively forming a reflecting layer having low transmittance of light, reflecting layer having high transmittance of light, supporting substrate, and display layer comprising a material to control scattering of light.

CONSTITUTION: This element consists of a reflecting layer 1 having low transmittance of light, reflecting layer 2 having high transmittance of light, supporting substrate 3, and display layer 4 having material to control scattering of light successively laminated. The reflecting layer 2 having high transmittance of light consists of several layers of different refractive indices and refractive indices of adjacent layers are different from each other. By forming the reflecting layer 2 having high transmittance of light, the light entering in this reflection-type display element is reflected on every interface in the reflecting layer having high transmittance comprising layers of different refractive indices, which improves the total reflectance of the element. Thus, a bright white display can be obtd.