Television in Japan

Television in Japan was introduced in 1939. However, experiments date back to the 1920s, with Kenjiro Takayanagi's pioneering experiments in electronic television.^[1] Television broadcasting was halted by World War II, after which regular television broadcasting began in 1950.^[2] 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. The analog broadcast in Japan was replaced with a 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 are mandated to hold a television license, with funds primarily used to subsidize NHK, the Japanese public service broadcaster. The fee varies from ¥13,650 to ¥24,740 (¥12,255 to ¥23,585 for households residing in Okinawa Prefecture)^[3] depending on the method and timing of payment, and on whether one receives only terrestrial television or also satellite broadcasts.^[4] Households on welfare may be excused from the license fee. In any case, there is no 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.^[4]