Surface illumination device and a display apparatus including the same

An object is to implement a narrowed picture-frame while suppressing the occurrence of light leakage and a reduction in luminance in an edge-light type backlight device. A backlight device is composed of LEDs (40) ; a side chassis (51) supporting a board having the LEDs (40) mounted thereon; a light guide plate (20) for allowing light emitted from the LEDs (40) to exit toward a liquid crystal panel in a planar manner; a reflection sheet (30) for allowing light traveling toward a back surface side within the light guide plate (20) to be reflected thereby; optical sheets (10) including a reflection type polarizer (11), a prism sheet (12), and a diffuser (13); and a top chassis (52) disposed on top of the optical sheets (10). Black printing (60) is provided in a part of the region of the diffuser (13). A length of the reflection type polarizer (11) is longer than a length of the light guide plate (20) such that an edge of the reflection type polarizer (11) is located closer to a side of the LEDs (40) than is an edge surface of the light guide plate (20).