A white organic EL element structure exhibiting a good emission efficiency in which the emission color does not vary with current application time. The organic EL element has an organic EL layer sandwiched by a pair of electrodes, characterized in that wherein the organic EL layer includes at least a carrier recombination layer and one or more of carrier nonrecombination layers the carrier recombination layer emits blue or blue green EL light having a peak wavelength of 400-500 nm through recombination of carriers injected into the organic EL element, the carrier nonrecombination layer contains a host material having carrier injection/transportation ability and absorbing at least a part of the EL light and one or more of kinds of PL emission dye material emitting PL light of lower energy than that of the EL light, and the distance between the carrier recombination layer and the carrier nonrecombination layer is 15 nm or above.