Gramophone records started to be produced in Japan in 1909.  In 1949, they were included in the legal deposit system of the National Diet Library, and with the cooperation of the Nihon Chikuonki Rekodo Kyokai (now Nihon Rekodo Kyokai, or Recording Industry Association of Japan), record companies began to deposit sound discs produced in Japan.  After a preparation period, they were opened to the public in 1963 for research and study only.

The NDL has about 290,000 analog records in cabinets in the stacks.  The collection includes 15,000 SPs, 175,000 LPs and 100,000 EPs.  The NDL has seen the end of the age of the SP, the LP and the EP.  After the CD came in, acquisition of analog records decreased gradually, but they still continue to be acquired a few at a time.  To prevent wear and tear, SPs are copied onto cassette tapes and provided for use.

They cover a wide range of genres, including purely traditional Japanese music, popular songs, classical and "pops."  Among others, there is a rich collection of popular songs.  Not only music but other sounds are included, such as speeches and sound effects.

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 Let us introduce some unique items.  We have small records which are 13 cm in diameter, heart-shaped or transparent ones, and some with a surface like an etching.  Some jacket designs are also quite interesting.  Moreover, we have about 30 special records called Filmon.  They are long-play records produced by Nippon Filmon Co., Ltd. around 1937 before LPs were invented.  A Filmon is a celluloid circular band 3.5 cm in width and 13 m in length.  It has about 100 grooves and one groove will play for 20 seconds, giving 36 minutes of play in total.  Unfortunately there is no Filmon player in the NDL, but most of them have been converted to cassette tapes and LPs and are available for use.

To search analog records, card catalogs in the order of record number are available, but when you do not know the number, indexes published by recording companies are useful.  There are also a composer card catalog for classical music and a subject card catalog for purely traditional Japanese music.  The NDL has an almost complete set of indexes published by recording companies after 1960.  Some are from the prewar period, including monthly bulletins and announcements of newly released records.  They are also a precious collection about records, which have a limited bibliography.