Phonograph Day

What Is Phonograph Day?

Every July 31st is "Phonograph Day" (蓄音機の日, Chikuonki no Hi) in Japan. The day is said to commemorate Thomas Edison obtaining a patent for the phonograph (蓄音機, chikuonki) — the first device capable of both recording and reproducing sound — on this day in 1877. However, Edison completed his tinfoil phonograph in December 1877, and his U.S. patent was filed that December and granted in February 1878, so accounts of the date's origin vary. In his first successful test, Edison recited "Mary had a little lamb" into the tinfoil cylinder and played it back. The invention marked the beginning of recorded sound — one of the most culturally transformative technologies in human history.

The Phonograph's Journey to Japan

The phonograph arrived in Japan within a few years of Edison's 1877 invention — Japan's active engagement with Western technology during the Meiji era meant that new American and European inventions reached Japan surprisingly quickly. Phonograph demonstrations in Japan in the 1880s attracted fascinated audiences who heard recorded voices for the first time, and commercial phonograph and gramophone equipment was available in Japan by the 1890s. Japan subsequently became a significant market for recorded music and eventually a major music production and distribution center.

Japan's Music Recording Industry

From the phonograph era through the gramophone, 78 rpm records, LP records, cassette tapes, CDs, and streaming, Japan has been at the forefront of both music recording technology and music consumption. Japan's recorded music market has long been one of the largest in the world, second only to the United States by revenue in recent years — reflecting both the high quality of Japanese recorded music production and the depth of Japanese consumer engagement with music across all formats. Japanese-manufactured recording and playback equipment — from Sony's tape recorders to Walkman to high-resolution audio players — has shaped global music listening for decades.

Fun Facts

• Kōhaku Uta Gassen: NHK's year-end musical program "Kōhaku Uta Gassen" (紅白歌合戦, Red and White Song Battle) — first aired on radio in 1951 and broadcast on New Year's Eve since 1953 — has long been one of Japan's most-watched programs, continuing a tradition of collective music experience that the phonograph era helped create by making music a shared cultural medium.
• A forerunner: In 1857, the phonautograph, invented in France, could record the waveform of sound — but it could not play the sound back.
• Japan's first domestic phonograph: In 1910, the "Nipponophone" went on sale, produced by the company that later became Nippon Columbia.
• "Sound Day": In Japan, the Japan Audio Society has designated December 6 as "Sound Day" (音の日), after Edison's first successful recording and playback in December 1877.