Cassette tape boom winds on

Once upon a time, not so long ago, people would listen to music on something called cassette tapes. Today, the old analog format is finding its way back into the spotlight, with specialty shops springing up to sell not just new releases, but older items too. Cassettes even feature in the story line of a recent manga.

While Generation X relives fond memories through tapes, Millennials and people younger are also attracted by the appeal of discovering what is often a novelty to them.

Waltz, a cassette specialist shop in Tokyo’s Nakameguro area that opened four years ago, currently has about 6,000 titles in stock. The store’s selling point is not so much that is displays cassettes as relics of a vibrant past, but that it focuses on new releases.

“In the early 2010s on the U.S. West Coast, a ‘cassette culture’ started to flourish,” says Waltz’s owner Taro Tsunoda, 49. “Artists who considered cassettes cool or cute began releasing songs on them one after another.”

Part of the appeal of cassettes is their compact size, their colorful cases, and that the listener can watch the tape go around as it is played. Tsunoda says that when he used Instagram to showcase those features, as well as the products’ contents, the posts led to young customers visiting the shop and walking away with purchases.

“Fundamentally, songs on cassettes are not listened to randomly, but in a set order,” Tsunoda says. “As a new experience in listening to music, I feel that this is being embraced by young people who are not accustomed to it.”

Another cassette shop, Newld in Tokyo’s Mukojima district, opened three years ago. Owner Hakko Hirata, 36, a designer by trade who is hooked on the format, sells a hand-picked selection of cassettes on Saturdays, the only day that the shop opens. “Including the cassette player, there is a certain functional beauty that makes them cool,” Hirata says. “The audio is a bit muffled and there are noises, but that sort of makes it sound like a live concert.”

According to the Recording Industry Association of Japan, in 2017 there were about 10,000 musical cassettes produced for sale, a 5 percent increase from the previous year. About 70 percent of those were of enka Japanese ballads. But, the association notes, “There is a growing trend for new releases by non-enka artists.”

Targeting cassette enthusiasts, Toshiba Lifestyle Electronics Trading Co. began selling last year a high-fidelity allin-one device that plays CDs, tapes and radio.

Other related merchandise is also hitting the market. Last summer, variety stores Plaza and MINiPLA began selling items such as handbags, card cases and mobile batteries with cassette motifs, and all have nearly sold out.

Also on the shelves currently are notebooks, stationery sets and other items with illustrations depicting cassette tapes.

Yomiuri Shimbun photos Waltz owner Taro Tsunoda says he only plays cassettes at his music shop in Nakameguro, Tokyo.

Cassette shop Newld sells a selection of multi-colored blank cassette tapes.