CDJapan : Behind the Scenes at Toyokasei: The Art of Japanese Record Production

To see how records are made, we visited the Toyokasei Factory, the only analog record factory in Japan.
We will introduce both the factory and the record market held there.
We hope this article will help you in your search for Japanese LPs.

Japan's Only Record Factory: Toyokasei Factory

How to buy vinyl records from Japan? It is quite easy because you can order it through our Vinyl (LP) store.
But the knowledge of how to make them is not easy to come by. So instead of you, we visited the Toyokasei Suehiro plant in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Entrance to the factory

Normally, the inside of the factory is not open to the public, but for this Open Factory event, the press was specially opened to the public.

Go Inside The Factory!

Pressing Machine

PVC, the material used to make records, is originally transparent, but black carbon is added to increase its strength.

Toyokasei also specializes in printing. They produce labels on the photo, and record jackets.

How Are Records Produced?

Cutting

Cutting is the first step in the record production process and is the most important process in determining the sound.
Master records are made by digging grooves in lacquer discs lacquered aluminum plates.
In fact, almost only one company in the world, Public Record in Nagano Japan, produces these lacquer discs.

Plating

The next process after cutting is plating that makes the stamper, the mold for the record.
First, a lacquer disc is plated. Then, the plate is removed. The negative of the lacquer disc, which is made by removing the plating, is called the master disc.
This process of plating and removing is repeated to create a mother disc from the master disc, and a stamper from the mother disc.

Pressing

Once the stamper is made, the pressing process begins.
After attaching the stamper to the top and bottom of the pressing machine, and setting the label.
The vinyl chloride (PVC) is melted at around 302 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 150 degrees Celsius) and then pressed into the shape of a record with a force of approx.100 tons.
The shape of the record may change slightly depending on the temperature of the day, detailed craftsmanship is required.

Finishing

The vinyls are checked by human eyes for distortion and scratches and are carefully packaged by hand.
Also, people listen and check to make sure there are no sound problems.
The manufacturing process of analog records is also very analog.