Extinct Media Museum Tokyo

What is the Extinct Media Museum?

The Extinct Media Museum (Tokyo, Japan) is a private museum that collects and exhibits media and media equipment that have died out or are dying out in the process of evolution, based on the belief that all media other than paper and stone will become extinct.

The museum's collection includes video cameras, photo cameras, typewriters, personal computers, recording media, music players, cell phones, PDAs, and mobile terminals with keyboards. As of late 2025, there are 4,000 items in the collection, 80% of which were donated, with 3,000 items on permanent display.

A Hands-On Museum Experience

The museum is a "touch museum" where visitors can freely hold all items in the collection. Visitors can observe the mechanical structure of the products in detail and feel the texture and weight of the materials.

Upon payment of an admission fee, visitors are free to take photos, record videos, and scan 3D images of the collection. The ultimate goal of the museum is to have the collection photographed by visitors and documented globally so that memories of these technologies will remain forever on the internet.

Evolution of Home Video and Recording Media

The museum places particular stress on the collection of home-use motion picture cameras, allowing visitors to understand at a glance the evolution from 8mm film cameras (9.5mm, Double 8, Single 8, Super 8) to video cameras (Betamax, VHS, VHS-C, 8mm video, DV), and memory-based cameras.

The "Library of the Lost Catalog" and Research Tools

The basement houses the "Library of the lost catalog," where visitors can freely browse 3,000 product catalogs spanning the 1960s to the 2020s. Equipped with an SV600 scanner station, visitors can connect their laptops to scan product catalogs for research purposes.

Additionally, 90% of the collection has been digitized into an online database available as a free web museum. All exhibits are also available for weekly rental as props for movies, music videos, and TV productions.