Watch four short films on Tokyo’s best record shops

An introduction to the vinyl mecca that is Tokyo.

For a city that is so obsessed with the future, Tokyo’s vinyl scene is as strong as anywhere in the world. From the late night jazz and whiskey bars to the department-store sized record shops, the Japanese capital is a destination for collectors like no other.

While we’ve already dipped our toes in the scene, highlighting the brilliant Disk Union and Dub Store shops and tracking down records from Tokyo to Osaka, discovering a series of short films that profile the city’s different stores has been about as exciting as unearthing a rare Sakamoto 12″.

Each film in the Tokyo Vinyl series profiles a different shop, teasing out its identity and how it fits into the neighbourhood.

The film above focusses on the newly opened waltz and its fantastic collection of tapes and vinyl, bucking the record shop trend in the city in moving away from the “man cave” environment towards a more inclusive space.

The next video profiles Discland Jaro in Shibuya, an old-school spot with expert advice known for its speciality jazz records.

Film three stays in Shibuya but reaches for the other end of the spectrum and the vast HMV store, which carries a huge selection of vinyl, CDs and merchandise as well as exclusive releases. Needless to say that Tokyo’s HMV has retained a reputation among the city’s vinyl buyers that its UK equivalent would die for.

The last film in the mini-series features Beams Records, the shop born from a fashion brand that has since spawned a brace of labels and features a curated selection from the likes of Rush Hour, RVNG Intl. and Music From Memory.