Internet radio hit the market way back in 90s. We can say that last ten years has been a golden era for it. With electronic gadgets like laptops, tablets and smart phones on a rapid usage, web radio rose spectacularly to be one of the biggest entertainment tools of modern era. Among these, mobile phone can be considered the unanimous spur for its popularity. While world fm radios are rocking the market on one hand, there are national radios and again territory based radios which are locally popular.
Variety offered in Japan:
Online radio Japan is a popular medium of information and entertainment. There are wide variety of channels and genres to choose from like sports, news, music, audio books, talk shows etc. As place of existence is not a problem for online radio it can be listened from anywhere. The channels are mostly private owned and are free to access. Popular news channels include NHK radio news and Daily news. NHK world offers programs in many world languages making itself a global platform for various subjects. In Music there are hundreds of channels to tune into ranging from local Japanese, Japanese oldies like 60s and 70s music, Japanese contemporary, world music like pop, rock, Jazz, Bollywood, funk etc.
Listener ship in the country:
However, the number of radio listeners in Japan is lesser than many other developed countries may be because of government regulations or general disinterest in the public or interest in other means of entertainment especially television. But we can say that at least after the popularity of Internet radio Japan the radio listening population has been increasing.
Famous broadcasters:
Out of many channels, NHK Radio 1 is one of the oldest broadcasters run by the Government which offers programs relating to current affairs, news and other important public events. It was perhaps the only channel that the Japanese knew till recently. Now NHK world airs programs in various world languages and has entered online stream.
Other Internet broadcasters and their offerings:
All anime networks airs Anime, a style of Japanese film and television animation. Blue Heron radio offers Japanese music. Jpop suki radio is famous for its J-pop music programs. NHK fm has mix of genres offered, SBS Japanese is one of the most famous channel which offers world news. Yes fm based in Osaka, Japan is a popular Japanese talk channel. All these Internet radio Japan free channels are of high class audibility and guarantee knowledge, information and entertainment depending on their respective genre.
Finally, we can say that online boom, which has caught the radio market in the recent past is taking bomb hit tiny nation Japan also by storm. After all, technology has been one of the major components of their biggest achievements.
