Objective: The purpose of this paper is to understand the bioethics and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) in the social and behavioral research area through「The Bioethics and Safety Act」and to examine the IRB’s present sit-uation, roles, responsibilities, and tasks. Methods: This paper reviewed articles, materials for education, and「The Bioethics and Safety Act」related with the IRB. Results: Bioethics included all the research in the social and behavioral area, and「The Bioethics and Safety Act」has been enforced in every research proj-ects targeting human subjects since February 2, 2013. Accoding to the law, the IRB must review the research proposals for human subjects and was introduced in social and behavioral research as a self-regulating system. At present, all the related institutions including universities must establish and run the IRB. This paper introduced the definition of bioethics, the IRB’s roles and review types, the total number of registered IRB, and「The Bioethics and Safety Act」. Conclusion/Implications: Both the central government and the local government have to make an effort for the establishment and settlement of the IRB system. This paper also presented some of the problems of the IRB.