A reminder to check your interphone

Every year on April 28th Japanese observes Interphone Day インターホンの日. A day to highlight the importance of safe, reliable communication in homes and buildings. The date for the anniversary comes from a Japanese pun on numbers, goroawase, for how 4/28 can be read as "yoi (4) tsu (2) wa (8)" meaning good communication.

Before I came to Japan, I was of course aware what an interphone was, but I only ever saw them being used in commercial buildings with a lot of different offices. I was very surprised to see them being used in homes in Japan. They are a lot more common here than in my own country. Here many homes have them. Some interphones are more elaborate than others with built in cameras and smartphone connectivity.

Interphone Day along with Interphone Inspection month, for the whole of month of April, were created to remind people that their interphone systems need regular maintenance. Do you have an interphone in your house / apartment?