History of Voice Acting in Japan

I think that it can be proud of Japanese anime culture in the world. Now I want to state history of voice acting in Japan.


In 1925, the Tokyo Broadcasting Company (predecessor to the NHK, Japan's public broadcasting system) started radio broadcasts. And students who were specializing in voice-only performances became the first voice actors in Japan when a performance of a radio drama was broadcast.Since then, because there was no television broadcasts, radio dramas were very popular.Voice actor was also popular. Radio drama is now in its heyday, voice actor applicant increased rapidly.

In 1961, many Japanese dubbed versions, such as an overseas drama and oil painting, were broadcast. The first dubbed show broadcast in Japan was an episode of the American cartoon Superman, on October 9, 1955, on KRT (today TBS), and the first non-animated dubbed show broadcast was Cowboy G-Men, again by KRT, in 1956.

Both were dubbed live; the first show to be broadcast with pre-recorded dubbing was The Adventures of Television Boy(Terebi Bōya no Bōken) on April 8, 1956.

The voice actor boom occurred according to the anime boom by the hit of the theater version "SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO" of the second half of the 1970s. This time, many voice actors took out the record.

After the 1990s, a voice actor's appearance increased and the width of activity also spread. For example, singer activity, appears in a magazine, appears on television.

Now, voice actor is working not only to work of voice but to multi.