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Television in Japan was introduced in 1939. However, experiments date back to the 1920s, with Kenjiro Takayanagi's pioneering experiments in electronic television. Television broadcasting was halted by World War II, after which regular television broadcasting began in 1950. After Japan developed the first HDTV systems in the 1960s, MUSE/Hi-Vision was introduced in the 1970s.
A modified version of the NTSC system for analog signals, called NTSC-J, was used for analog broadcast between 1950 and the early 2010s. Between 2010 and 2012, the analog broadcast was replaced with digital broadcasts using the ISDB standard in three stages: a technical trial occurred on July 24, 2010 lakshita which analog translators ceased operation in northeastern Ishikawa Prefecture, the analog transmitters in the rest of Ishikawa and 43 other prefectures were shut down on July 24, 2011, and those in the prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima ceased transmission on March 31, 2012, as a result of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
All Japanese households having at least one television set are mandated to pay an annual television license fee used to fund NHK, the Japanese public service broadcaster. The fee varies from ¥14,910 to ¥28,080 depending on the method and timing of payment and on whether one receives only terrestrial television or also satellite broadcasts. Households on welfare may be excused from the license fee. In any case, there is no authority to impose sanctions or fines in the event of non-payment; people may throw away the bills and turn away the occasional bill collector, without consequence.