Tokyo, July 6 (IANS/EFE): Fuji TV on Monday became the first Japanese private broadcaster to air programmes in 4K resolution, or ultra high definition.

The channel aired a documentary on the abandoned island of Hashima, in Nagasaki province, and a programme on lighting in Tokyo.

It also plans to retransmit a television series, jointly produced by China, Kyodo news agency reported.

Viewers can stream the programmes on their computers, if they have monitors compatible with 4K technology, but cannot do so on their smartphones, the agency added.

The 4K technology has four times the number of pixels present in a high definition screen, making its resolution four times superior to conventional high definition technology, or HD.

In June last year, Japan launched its Channel 4K, operated by NexTV-F, with the backing of the Japanese government.

It airs free 4K programmes produced by other channels of the group, as a test run, with an eye on its commercial use by 2016.

Several Japanese companies are working on technology to transmit content with 8K technology on giant screens for use during the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

Toshiba is developing a low-cost compression software for real-time transmission of video in 8K, while telecommunications giant NTT is developing a software for 8K that will speed up data processing without affecting image quality.