Television in Japan was introduced in 1939. However, experiments date back to the 1920s, with Kenjiro Takayanagi's pioneering experiments in electronic television. Television broadcasting was halted by World War II, after which regular television broadcasting began in 1950. After Japan developed the first HDTV systems in the 1960s, MUSE/Hi-Vision was introduced in the 1970s. A modified version of the NTSC system for analog signals, called NTSC-J, was used for analog broadcast between 1950 and the early 2010s. Analog broadcasts in Japan was replaced with digital broadcasts using the ISDB standard. ISDB supersedes both the NTSC-J analog television system and the previously used MUSE Hi-vision analog HDTV system in Japan. Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) services using ISDB-T (ISDB-T International) started in Japan in December 2003, and since then, Japan adopted ISDB over other digital broadcasting standards. All Japanese households having at least one television set, or any device that is capable of receiving live television broadcasts, are mandated to hold a television license, with funds primarily used to subsidize NHK, the Japanese public service broadcaster. The fee varies from ¥12,276 to ¥21,765 (reduced to ¥10,778 to ¥20,267 for households residing in Okinawa Prefecture) depending on the method and timing of payment, and on whether one receives only terrestrial television or also satellite broadcasts. Households on welfare may be excused from the license fee. Notably, there is no legal authority to impose sanctions or fines in the event of non-payment; people may (and many do) throw away the bills and turn away the occasional bill collector, without consequence.
History
The foundation of NHK and Kenjiro Takayanagi's research
In 1924, Kenjiro Takayanagi began a research program on electronic television. In 1925, he demonstrated a cathode ray tube (CRT) television with thermal electron emission. Television tests were conducted in 1926 using a combined mechanical Nipkow disk and electronic Braun tube system. In 1926, he demonstrated a CRT television with 40-line resolution, the first working example of a fully electronic television receiver. In 1927, he increased the television resolution to 100 lines, which was unrivaled until 1931. In 1928, he was the first to transmit human faces in half-tones on television.
In the same period Takayanagi also turned his interest to television studies after having learned about the new technology in a French magazine. He developed a system similar to that of John Logie Baird, using the Nipkow disk to scan the subject and generate electrical signals. But unlike Baird, Takayanagi took the important step of using a cathode ray tube to display the received signal, successfully reproducing the Katakana character イ in December 1926. In 1928 his research took a further breakthrough, when he managed to reproduce an image of a person with a resolution of 40 lines at a refresh rate of 14 frames per second. In the 1930s Takayanagi and his research team developed a fully electronic television system using a revised version of the iconoscope. This was followed by the invention of a video receiver capable of reproducing images with a resolution of 441 lines at 30 frames per second, the best on the market at the time. After the first broadcasts via radio, which became a reality in the second half of the 1920s, the creation of a central institution for the management of radio broadcasting services that could reach the entire national territory became increasingly urgent. At the behest of the Ministry of Communications the local stations of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya were thus merged in 1926 into a single national organization called Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai. Right after its creation, four other stations were created in other regions, namely Hokkaidō, Tōhoku, Chūgoku and Kyūshū, whose first broadcasts took place in November 1928. In 1930 the Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai founded the Science & Technology Research Laboratories (STRL) with the aim of developing a television set in the wake of the inventions of Paul Gottlieb Nipkow and Vladimir Zworykin. Meanwhile in Europe, the first regular test broadcasts were being conducted, with Germany ready to broadcast the imminent Berlin Olympics of 1936. The following year, it was decided that the Games were to be held in Tokyo, and the STRL was put in charge of the event's television project. Takayanagi himself and other leading engineers of the time took part in the program and, although the Olympics were officially canceled in July 1938, television research continued, fueled by the zeal of those involved in the project. On May 13, 1939 an experimental television signal was broadcast from the STRL antenna at the new Broadcasting Hall in Uchisaiwaichō, located 13 km away. This represented the first public television experiment conducted through the use of radio waves in Japan.
The beginning of regular broadcasts and the end of the NHK monopoly The experiments continued until the end of the decade. Existing equipment was improved and new lighting systems were created along with smaller, lighter cameras to capture moving images. An all-electronic system was adopted in the 1930s using a domestically developed iconoscope system. A variety of productions such as films, variety shows, musical shows and TV dramas (such as the family comedy Yūge-mae (Before Supper), the first dorama in history, broadcast live in four episodes over three nights) saw the light, laying the foundations for the development of the television and electronics industry after the Second World War. During the conflict, however, research on television equipment was suspended and electrotechnical companies gave way to the production of weapons, ammunition and other products for war use. Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai itself, which until then had maintained a certain independence from the government, with the increase in military control over the institutions ended up becoming a simple propaganda weapon of the State. For a brief period in the aftermath of Japan's surrender, the occupied government banned television research in 1945, but was lifted in July 1946. Takayanagi joined the Victor Company of Japan to continue research on his own end, while the NHK resumed theirs in November. Takayanagi played a central role in jointly developing television broadcasting technology and television receivers with NHK, Sharp, and Toshiba.
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