An EL element having a novel structure is provided, which is suitable for AC drive. A light-emitting element of the invention is provided with material layers (material layers each having approximately symmetric I-V characteristics with respect to the zero point in a graph having the abscissa axis showing current values and the ordinate axis showing voltage values) between a first electrode and a layer including an organic compound and between the layer including the organic compound and a second electrode respectively. Specifically, each of the material layers is a composite layer including a metal oxide and an organic compound.