Sonic Japan is a digital repository containing sounds and images that communicate sonic life in Japan. Sounds were collected as part of fieldwork for a Australian Research Council funded project on sonic practice in Japan. Sonic practice is defined as the ways people create and experience sound as part of everyday life. We encourage listeners to explore the map, specific neighborhoods or sounds organised by cultural themes.
Sonic Japan is a joint project by Melbourne University, Monash University, the Australian Research Council and MNSI, the Melbourne Networked Society Institute.
Sonic Japan on Facebook /sonicjapanproject
Sonic Japan on Twitter @soundsofjapan
It is helpful for the visitor to this site to know some of the design decisions that were made during its construction. Sound recordings are limited on the whole to 1 minute long 'bites', and where possible the researchers’ own photographs are used to give a visual context for the sounds and the accompanying descriptive texts. Similarly, descriptions of places and activities in this sound repository are authored by the researchers, but in some cases Wikipedia is used to provide up to date information.
Sonic Japan is an inter-university, international collaborative research project drawing upon the expertise of many scholars in Australia, Japan and the US, including:
