I purchased this disc based on the front cover (writing on the back wasn’t legible from the auction photos) hoping it might be a Muse test/alignment disc.

The disc label is printed with HM0073 which is also part of the mint mark of side A and is the only reference number. Then there is also a stick-on label of 060 stuck to the disc label and the front cover.

Using a phone translation app here is some information from the back cover:

• Title on back cover reads "PDP Images for Video Quality Evaluation".
• Below that "Produced April 1996"
• Appears to be issued by "PDP Development Council"
• The column headings on the table read (from left to right):
  • Chapter number
  • ITE standard moving image scene number
  • “Image name
  • Movement speed, pixels/field, (direction of movement)
  • Time (seconds)
  • Time Code
  • Remarks

Chapters 1-9 are titled "Skin Colour Chart". It is a still image of a woman holding three flowers. Chapters 11-19 are titled "Ramp Waveform". It is a greyscale.

Each of these titles starts as a still image and the subsequent chapters feature the still image scrolling right to left at increasing speeds and the last chapter repeats the fastest speed left to right. The remaining chapters (19+)are short video sequences.

The disclaimer in the box at the bottom reads:

Limit of the purpose of use:
1. Research – Development.
2. Testing of the equipment manufacturing process.
3. Announced exhibition of the society at the institute.
4. Equipment performance in an exhibition. Exhibition of features (except for promotion).

After some initial head-scratching and then some googling I believe that this was put out by the Plasma Display Panel (PDP) Development Council for evaluating Hi-Vision plasma panels which were in development at the time. The following quotes are some information found online:

In Oct. 1994, a Hi-Vision PDP Joint Development Consortium was organized to develop a practical Hi-Vision 40-in. PDP receiver in time for the Nagano Winter Olympic Games and to develop a prototype 55-in. Hi-Vision PDP receiver by 1999, with the membership of NHK and leading manufacturers in all related technical areas.
The Hi‐Vision PDP Consortium, which consisted of more than 26 PDP‐related manufacturers in Japan and NHK, successfully completed its activities in October 1999

So, this appears to be something produced specifically for the evaluation of HD plasma displays which they were working on producing practical versions at the time. (Practical meaning mass manufacturable as opposed to prototype; a prototype 40-in. HD PDP screen had been produced by NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories in 1992.)

Not the Muse test disc I hoped for a nice little piece of HD/Plasma television history.