JOMX-DTV (channel 9), branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an

independent television station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast network. As such, it only broadcasts syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered programming, for which a third party pays t ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city and parts of nearby prefectures. It competes with

Nippon Television JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as (NTV) or Nippon TV, is a Japanese television station serving the Kantō region as the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned and operated by the , a sub ...

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

NHK General TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK G, is the main television service of NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster. Its programming includes news, drama, quiz/variety shows, music, sports, anime, and specials which compete directly with the output of its co ...

NHK Educational TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK E, is the second television service of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). It is a sister service of NHK General TV, showing programs of a more educational, documentaries, cultural, children's or intellectual n ...

, TBS TV,

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as is a Japanese television station that serves as the flagship of the TX Network.Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

, all of which are flagship stations of national networks. Tokyo MX was founded on April 30, 1993, and broadcasts commenced on November 1, 1995. Shareholders include the

Tokyo Metropolitan Government The is the government of the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis. One of the 47 Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Japan, the government consists of a popularly elected governor and assembly. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, headquarters build ...

, Tokyo FM Broadcasting, and others. (MXTV is an

associate company An associate company (or associate) in accounting and business valuation is a company in which another company owns a significant portion of voting shares, usually 20–50%. In this case, an owner does not consolidate the associate's financial st ...

Tokyo FM (abbreviation:TFM) is a radio station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the flagship station of the Japan FM Network (JFN). Timeline The station's forerunner, FM Tokai (FM東海, abbreviated FMT), owned by Tokai University, was launched on ...

.) Every week, Tokyo MX airs the press conferences of the

Governor of Tokyo The is the head of government of Tokyo. In 1943, upon the unification of Tokyo City and Tokyo Prefecture (1868–1943), Tokyo Prefecture into Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the position of Governor was created. Previously, the prefecture had a ...

. It is a member of the

Japanese Association of Independent Television Stations The Japanese Association of Independent Television Stations (JAITS; ) is a group of Japan's reception fee-free commercial broadcasting, commercial terrestrial television stations which are not members of Japanese media#TV networks, the major na ...

(JAITS).

History

Although Tokyo is at the center of Japan's media industry, the proliferation of independent television stations in the Kanto area excluded the prefecture. In 1985, governor Shunichi Suzuki requested a UHF frequency for a television station limited to Tokyo. On January 30, 1991, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications granted the UHF channel 14 allocation for Tokyo. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, as well as the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, revealed their license bid, with 159 candidates. On April 30, 1993, a group led by former

Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank , abbreviated as , was one of the largest banks in the world during the latter third of the 20th century. It was created in 1971 by merger of Dai-Ichi Bank, Japan's oldest bank, and Nippon Kangyo Bank, a state financial institution that granted ...

(now

Mizuho Bank is the integrated retail and corporate banking unit of Mizuho Financial Group (; ). It is one of the largest financial services company in Japan with total assets of approximately $1.9 trillion USD in 2023, and considered one of Japan's three ...

) employee Tetsuo Fujimori founded the Tokyo Metropolitan Television Broadcasting Corporation (TMT, later MX) to construct the sixth commercial television station that would be licensed to Tokyo. Test transmissions began in April 1995. The station received its license on October 13, 1995, and began test transmissions two days later under the name MX-TV. MX-TV signed on the air on November 1, 1995, at 4:00 JST with a 14-hour long introductory program entitled ; regular broadcast commenced at 18:00 JST that same day. The station's first executive producer was Yoshihiko Muraki, a former producer at TV Man Union, a production company related to TBS. Inspired by the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

-focused news channel NY1, Muraki wanted to differentiate the station from its longer established competitors by dedicating 12 hours of programming daily to rolling news, and the rest to alternative programming focusing on the Tokyo region. The news programming, under the name Tokyo News , revolutionised Japanese TV news by introducing the concept of

video journalism Video journalism or videojournalism is a form of journalism, where the journalist shoots, edits and often presents their own video material. Background A predecessor to video journalism first appeared in the 1960s in the USA, when reporters had to ...

, in which the station's journalists recorded, produced, and edited their stories, alongside reporting on them. These 12 hours of news were divided into 5 daily blocks: morning, noon, evening, night, and overnight. It also offered reports live from the Metropolitan Police Department, the

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building The , also referred to as the for short, is the seat of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which governs the special wards, cities, towns, and villages that constitute the Tokyo Metropolis. Located in Shinjuku ward, the building was designed ...

, and the Telecom Center building, where the station's original headquarters were housed. In April 1996, the station installed a transmitter in the

Ogasawara Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , is a Japanese archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands located around SSE of Tokyo and northwest of Guam. The group as a whole has a total area of but only two of the islands are permanen ...

, which are under the prefecture's jurisdiction. The station suffered in its first years for a poor signal and heavy management disputes. Some of the shareholders lacked any kind of TV broadcasting experience, and scandals arose over the operation and shareholding structure of the broadcaster. Additionally, its analog signal from Tokyo Tower did not cover the entire region, with its signal being poor in the eastern-most parts of the city. As the struggles continued, Muraki resigned in June 1996, and station VP and General Manager Kazuo Kinumura was dismissed that following August. In September, the station's Programming Committee resigned. Shortly thereafter, and in the wake of the

Asian financial crisis The 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide economic meltd ...

, the station began to suffer from serious economic problems. The crisis began to be sorted by June of 1997, after FM Tokyo stepped up and bought a controlling stake in the broadcaster. As part of the transaction, FM Tokyo's president Wataru Goto and Odakyu Electric Railway chairman Tsutomu Shimizu were appointed as president and vice president. Goto and Shimizu decided to drop the ambitious news format and reposition the channel as a more generalist broadcaster with a strong local focus. Although news programming was retained, albeit in a reduced form and in a more traditional format, the station began adding more entertainment programming, including locally oriented variety shows and coverage of local sports, as well as late-night anime, and

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...

s during off-peak timeslots. This improved the station's ratings and finances, and the company became profitable by 2002. The service was relayed nationwide as part of the now-defunct

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

service from April 1998 to September 2000, when its services ended. Telecom Center Building

On December 12, 2000, MX-TV was rebranded as . The station commenced its

digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV, DTT, or DTTB) is a technology for terrestrial television, in which television stations broadcast television content in a digital signal, digital format. Digital terrestrial television is a major technologica ...

signal on December 1, 2003, and would rebrand as Tokyo MX in July 2006, after moving its studios and headquarters to its current location in the Chiyoda ward. These moves would ultimately hamper, once again, the station's finances, but the launch of digital terrestrial broadcasts would allow the station's signal to be in a par with its competitors and allowing more viewers to see their programming. Ultimately, the station would recover from these financial difficulties by 2011. Tokyo MX shut down its analog broadcasts on July 24, 2011. It launched transmissions from the

Tokyo Skytree , also written as Tokyo Sky Tree, is a broadcasting and observation tower, located in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It has been the tallest tower in Japan since opening in 2012,

on August 27, 2012, increasing their broadcasting footprint to cover the immediate outskirts of Tokyo city; the station also established a street-side studio in the building where variety programmes are broadcast. As a result of this, Tokyo MX stopped broadcasting its signal from the Tokyo Tower on May 12, 2013. A second channel, Tokyo MX2, began broadcasting in April 2014. The channel operates on the second sub-channel of Tokyo MX1 and is primarily dedicated to alternative programming. The station celebrated its 20th anniversary on November 1, 2015.

Anime on Tokyo MX

Tokyo MX is known to air most late-night anime. Previously, the station only aired anime classics such as ''

Heidi, Girl of the Alps is an animated television series produced by Zuiyo Eizo and the series itself based on the novel '' Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning'' by Johanna Spyri (1880). It was directed by Isao Takahata and features contributions by numer ...

'' and ''

Touch The somatosensory system, or somatic sensory system is a subset of the sensory nervous system. The main functions of the somatosensory system are the perception of external stimuli, the perception of internal stimuli, and the regulation of bo ...

''. When the affiliate stations of major Japanese networks serving the

Kantō region The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...

started airing less late-night anime in 2006, the station discovered that such anime would give them more ratings, and started airing them in October. On weekday evenings, the ''

Pretty Cure The is a Japanese magical girl anime franchise created by Izumi Todo and produced by ABC Television, ABC Animation, ADK Emotions and Toei Animation. Each series revolves around a group of magical girls known as Pretty Cures who battle ag ...

'' series, which airs on

, aired in reruns on Tokyo MX. Since then, the station has aired many hits including the ''

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was originally serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1987 to 2004, and was transferred to the monthly manga magazine ''Ultra Jum ...

'' series, ''

Broken Blade is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yunosuke Yoshinaga. It was serialized in various Flex Comix magazines from September 2006 to October 2022, with its individual chapters collected into 20 volumes. It was adapted into six ...

'', the ''

Love Live! is a Japanese multimedia project created by Hajime Yatate and Sakurako Kimino and co-produced by Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa through ASCII Media Works; Bandai Namco Music Live through music label Lantis (company), Lantis; and animation studi ...

'' series, ''

Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. It is set in a world where humanity is forced to live in cities surrounded by three enormous walls that protect them from gigantic man-eating humanoids referred to a ...

'' and '' Dr. Stone''. The station has also gone to air reruns of other popular anime such as ''

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was Serial (literature), serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 indi ...

'' and ''

Gundam is a Japanese military science fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with ...

'', along with ''

Bushiroad is a Japanese entertainment company, producer of collectible card games and trading cards, and publisher of mobile apps and games, which was founded in 2007 by Takaaki Kidani and is headquartered in Tokyo. Bushiroad created and owns various med ...

's'' ''

BanG Dream! ''BanG Dream!'', also known as , is a Japanese music media franchise owned by Bushiroad. Created by Bushiroad president Takaaki Kidani in January 2015 with original story by Kō Nakamura, the project began as a manga before ex ...

'' and ''

D4DJ ''D4DJ'' (''Dig Delight Direct Drive DJ'') is a Japanese music media franchise created by Bushiroad, with original story by Kō Nakamura. Takaaki Kidani is credited as executive producer. It consists primarily of live disc jockey performa ...

''. As Tokyo MX serves only Tokyo, their anime programming air elsewhere in Japan on member stations of the

(including

KBS Kyoto is a commercial broadcasting station headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It is doing business in Kyoto Prefecture as and in Shiga Prefecture as Its radio station serves Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures and is a member of National Radio Network (NR ...

TV Kanagawa (tvk for short) is an independent television station in Japan serving Kanagawa Prefecture and parts of the Greater Tokyo Area with favorable reception. The station was founded on April 20, 1971 and began broadcasting on April 1, 1972. Its call s ...

Gunma TV , also known as GTV, is a television network headquartered in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. It is a member of the Japanese Association of Independent Television Stations (JAITS). The government of Gunma Prefecture is the biggest shareholder of GTV, an ...

, SUN TV and

TV Saitama abbreviated TVS, doing business as is a Japanese fee-free terrestrial commercial television broadcasting company headquartered in Urawa-ku, Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located ...

) which MX is a member of, the JNN/TBS

Kansai The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropoli ...

affiliate

MBS MBS may refer for: People * Mohammed Ben Sulayem (born 1961), president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile * Mohammed bin Salman (born 1985), crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia * Mohan Bikram Singh (born 1935), Nepales ...

or sometimes

ANN Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie and Ana. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in ...

/TV Asahi Kansai affiliate

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

Sports on Tokyo MX

In June 2002, the station broadcast two matches of the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. In 2022, Tokyo MX became the broadcaster of

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

from November 20 to December 18 with

Abema is a Japanese streaming service that launched on April 11, 2016, under the name It is majority-owned by CyberAgent, with a 55.2% stake, and TV Asahi, with a 36.8% stake, while the remaining ownership belongs to various other companies, mostl ...

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

, and

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

as a part of Japan Consortium. Since January 15, 2023, Tokyo MX has officially obtained the broadcasting rights for every

FC Tokyo , commonly known as , is a Japanese professional football club based in Chōfu, Tokyo. The club plays in the J1 League, the top tier of football in the country. From 2025, FC Tokyo is one of the few J.League clubs to be simply called ''Footb ...

's matches from

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

along with the broadcasting rights for

2026 FIFA World Cup The 2026 FIFA World Cup, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's Association football, soccer championship contested by the List of men's n ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, and

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Programming

*TOKYO MX News **Morning Flag **News Tokyo Flag *TOKYO MX Sports **

(every

matches) ** FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 ** FIFA World Cup 26 *TOKYO MX Series **Marriage with Me? Seriously? **Ojisan is Cheering for My Love (In My Brain) **One-sided Love Gourmet Diary (Season 1 & 2)

Notes

References

External links

Official website

TOKYO MX Drama

TOKYO MX Variety Show

TOKYO MX NEWS

TOKYO MX anime
{{Coord, 35, 41, 5, N, 139, 44, 38, E, display=title Independent television stations in Japan Television stations in Japan Television in Tokyo Television channels and stations established in 1995 1993 establishments in Japan Chiyoda, Tokyo Otaku

History

Anime on Tokyo MX

Sports on Tokyo MX

Programming

See also

Notes

References

External links