Does anyone know what the songs are that is played at 5 (during spring and summer) and 4 (during fall and winter) and why they are played at those times??? I've been curious about this for over a year!!!

Good question! Me too!

That is for a test for emergency announcing system.

Most of populated area in Japan has this system as Japan is the disaster-prone country. That is designed to alert:

- Earthquakes (scale 4 or larger) are measured
- Meteorological warning are issued to Yokosuka area by the Meteorological bureau
- Expected Tsunami warnings are issued by the Meteorological bureau
- Photo-chemical smog warning are issued
- or such huge disaster had happened or expected.

There are a lot of speakers of the system all around the city. They are installed by local (the city of Yokosuka) government. If they are used only in real emergency, the city of Yokosuka can't find if they work ok until the real disaster that is a big problem, so these equipments need to be tested periodically. The musics are for that testing purpose. That's much better by noising by a test annouce like "Hello, this is test. It's fine today." everyday, isn't it?

The songs are both very common children's songs:

Summer (Apr. - Sep.):
"Yuu-yake Ko-yake" ("Sunset"), 1923
written by Ukoh Nakamura (text) and Shin Kusakawa (music)
The music describes a sunset time of a Japanese country side. The place is a part of Hachioji city and there is a small facility (a kind of museum featuring the song) there.

Winter (Oct. - Mar.):
"Furusato" ("Home province"), 1914
written by Tatsuyuki Takano (text), composer is unknown
The song sings a grown faraway looking back the landscape of home province's mountains, rivers, parents and friends.

You are a wealth of information!  Thanks for the very enlightening response...

Thanks.

That test music is also intended to give a good sign for kids to know the time to go back home before dark. That's why playing time (5pm summer or 4pm winter) is changed.

I thought it had something to do with dark lol. But the rest is interesting and pretty cool. Thanks! Now when my son gets older I can tell him he has no excuse for being home after dark

Thanks for sharing Okumura! My kids always thought it was to tell kids to go home from playing, I didn't realize it was warning the testing system. When they're out playing with kids in the neighborhood, everyone goes home with the music plays.