June 10 is known as toki no kinen bi(時の記念日), Anniversary of Time. This was established by Tokyo tenmondai(東京天文台), Tokyo observatory and Seikatsu kaizen domei kai(生活改善同盟会), Life improvement union in 1920. This day was set to enhance the people's sense of value of the importance of time.
Why June 10? Because according to the oldest Japanese history book Nihon shoki (日本書紀), the first water clock was set and started working in Japan on June 10, 671.
Water clocks and sundials are likely to be the oldest time-measuring instruments. For 1000 years water clocks were the most precise and most used measurement until pendulum clocks were invented in 1656 by Dutch scientist Christian Huygens. Until 1930s, the pendulum clock was the world's most accurate timekeeper. After that the quartz clock was invented in 1927 and used as standards until World War II.
The biggest pendulum clock is now in the NS building in Shinjyuku (新宿), Tokyo. (See picture)
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