Photo/Illutration Tower Records’ flagship store in Tokyo’s Shibuya district has nearly doubled its analog record floor. (Provided by Tower Records Japan Inc.)

Vinyl is making a comeback in Japan.

Tower Records Japan Inc.’s renovated flagship store in Tokyo’s Shibuya district was reopened in late February. Its analog record floor has nearly doubled in size.

Music fans in their 50s and 60s, who grew up listening to music on vinyl, and foreign tourists are usually seen on the floor. But the number of younger customers is sharply increasing, according to the company.

Vinyl records were forced out of the mainstream after the 1980s, and for young music listeners, analog records had already been reduced to a minor presence when they were born.

But the unfamiliarity with the medium is one reason why the vinyl is appealing to young people, a representative said.

Before the renovation, the analog record floor had about 70,000 records in its inventory.

It now boasts more than 100,000 items in stock, and sales have increased by about 25 times from 10 years earlier.

The vinyl production value in Japan has recovered to levels seen about three decades ago.

According to the Recording Industry Association of Japan, the annual value of analog record production peaked in 1980 at 181.2 billion yen ($1.18 billion).

The figure continued to decrease due to the increasing popularity of CDs and subsequent streaming services, falling to 170 million yen in 2010.

But the trend has since turned upward.

Production value increased 45 percent year on year to 6.27 billion yen in 2023, and the figure is closing in on 7.14 billion yen recorded in 1989.

In 2023, 871 titles were newly released on vinyl, a more than ninefold increase from 91 titles released in 2014.

WORTH EXTRA EFFORT

Marin Sakata, a 23-year-old artist and social media influencer, promotes the charms of pop culture and fashion trends of the retro-ambient Showa Era (1926-1989). When she was a second-year junior high school student, she found a vinyl record of “Song for U.S.A.” by the Checkers in her grandmother’s home.

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Marin Sakata, an artist and influencer, talks about the charms of the Showa Era (1926-1989) and vinyl records in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on March 19. (Masafumi Ueda)

She took it out from the sleeve, put it on the turntable and dropped the needle.

The record produced a static noise and, after a silent beat, started playing the song.

Sakata said she felt in contact with the “warming” music while experiencing something exciting.

Although vinyl involves extra handling with a moment of silence until music starts playing, young people are attracted to the records for the “beauty of incompleteness,” Sakata said.

‘ENJOY DIFFERENCES’

At the Kanazawa Phonograph Museum in Kanazawa, visitors can listen to and experience the charms of vinyl records played on phonographs, which date back more than 100 years.

While many visitors to the museum are seniors, more young enthusiasts have appeared in recent years, according to director Noriyuki Yokaichiya, 72.

After listening to analog records and phonographs, some young visitors say they feel that digital audio sounds clear but bland.

“Each medium has differences in sound quality,” Yokaichiya said. “I’d like you to listen to various sounds and enjoy the differences of each type.”

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