Lucky was produced by the Japanese Nipponophone Company during the mid & late 1930's. It was almost entirely devoted to material drawn from the U.S. Brunswick & A.R.C. catalogs. A few sides cut in Tokyo of Hawaiian style music also appear in the 60000 series.

The first series listed here is the 5000 series which was issued from August 1935 to December 1936.

The much longer running 60000 series (which ran to 521 issues according to available files) seems to have started sometime late in 1935 - there is no exact date given in the company ledgers - which means it would have overlapped with the 5000 series. Perhaps this is why the 5000 series was soon discontinued. The 60000 series lasted until January 20, 1940. It was briefly followed by the LX series which was issued between March & July 1940. This was also discontinued after only 20 issues, and this was the end of the Lucky label.

There was also a 12" series which ran from 17001 to 17006. This and the LX series are listed at the end of the 60000 series.

The original company ledgers often provide additional information including Nipponophone dubbing matrixes, date of issue, date of deletion, original sources, composer credits, etc.

In the original ledgers a secondary number sometimes appears above the original U.S. release number. They may refer to as-yet-undocumented releases or perhaps Nippon Columbia issues. Dubbed masters are indicated by D-prefixed control numbers following the true matrix number. It is also worth noting that a couple of the Russ Morgan records are derived from Theatre Use Only discs.

Japanese Lucky 5000 series