, also known as NHK, is a Japanese

public broadcaster Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a

statutory corporation A statutory corporation is a government entity created as a statutory body by statute. Their precise nature varies by jurisdiction, thus, they are statutes owned by a government or controlled by national or sub-national government to the (in ...

funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two

terrestrial television Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an ant ...

channels (

NHK General TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK G, is the main television service of NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster. Its programming includes news, drama, quiz/variety shows, music, sports, anime, and specials which compete directly with the output of its ...

and

NHK Educational TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK E, is the second television service of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). It is a sister service of NHK General TV, showing programs of a more educational, cultural or intellectual nature, periodically also sh ...

), four

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

channels (NHK BS1 and NHK BS Premium; as well as two

ultra-high-definition television Ultra-high-definition television (also known as Ultra HD television, Ultra HD, UHDTV, UHD and Super Hi-Vision) today includes 4K UHD and 8K UHD, which are two digital video formats with an aspect ratio of 16:9. These were first proposed by ...

channels, NHK BS4K and

NHK BS8K NHK BS8K is a satellite television broadcasting service offered by NHK. Launched on 1 December 2018, it is the world's first television channel to broadcast in 8K resolution. Background NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories had starte ...

), and three radio networks (

NHK Radio 1 is Japan's oldest radio station operated by the public broadcaster, NHK. Its programming output, which consists of news, current affairs, and information programming is broadly similar to the BBC's Radio 4. NHK Radio 1 is available mainly on AM ...

NHK Radio 2 is a Japanese radio station operated by the public broadcaster, NHK. Its programming output consists of education programming where NHK Radio 2 is regarded as the radio version of NHK Educational TV and is broadly similar to South Korea's EBS ...

, and

NHK FM is the official music and news FM radio station of the NHK (the Japan Broadcasting Corporation). See also * NHK External links

* NHK, FM Radio in Japan Publicly funded broadcasters Radio stations established in 1969 1969 establishme ...

). NHK also provides an international broadcasting service, known as

NHK World-Japan NHK World-Japan (formerly and also known simply as NHK World) is the international arm of the Japanese state-controlled public broadcaster NHK. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other national public-ser ...

. NHK World-Japan is composed of

NHK World TV NHK World-Japan (formerly and also known simply as NHK World) is the international arm of the Japanese state-controlled public broadcaster NHK. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other national public-ser ...

NHK World Premium NHK World Premium is a TV news and entertainment broadcasting service offered by NHK World-Japan, the international arm of Japan's public broadcaster NHK. The service is aimed towards overseas Japanese and the overseas market, similar to worldwid ...

, and the shortwave radio service

Radio Japan NHK World-Japan (formerly and also known simply as NHK World) is the international arm of the Japanese State media, state-controlled public broadcaster NHK. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other nationa ...

(RJ). World Radio Japan also makes some of its programs available on the Internet. NHK was the first broadcaster in the world to broadcast in high-definition (using

multiple sub-Nyquist sampling encoding MUSE (Multiple sub-Nyquist Sampling Encoding), commercially known as Hi-Vision (a contraction of HIgh-definition teleVISION) was a Japanese analog HDTV system, with design efforts going back to 1979. It used dot-interlacing and digital video co ...

, also known as Hi-Vision) and in 8K.

History

NHK's earliest forerunner was the , founded in 1924 under the leadership of Count

Gotō Shinpei Count was a Medical Doctor with Doctor of Medicine, a Japanese politician and cabinet minister of the Taishō and early Shōwa period Empire of Japan. He served as the head of civilian affairs of Taiwan under Japanese rule, the first direc ...

. Tokyo Broadcasting Station, along with separate organizations in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

and

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

, began radio broadcasts in 1925. The three stations merged under the first incarnation of NHK in August 1926. NHK was modelled on the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, and the merger and reorganisation was carried out under the auspices of the pre-war

Ministry of Communications A Communications Ministry or Department of Communications is a ministry or other government agency charged with communication. Communications responsibilities includes regulating telecommunications, postal services, broadcasting and print media. T ...

. NHK's second radio network began in 1931, and the third radio network (FM) began in 1937.

Radio broadcasting

NHK began

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

broadcasting on an experimental basis in the 1930s, and began regular English- and Japanese-language shortwave broadcasts in 1935 under the name

, initially aimed at ethnic Japanese listeners in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and the west coast of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. By the late 1930s, NHK's overseas broadcasts were known as Radio Tokyo, which became an official name in 1941. In November 1941, the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

nationalised all public news agencies and coordinated their efforts via the Information Liaison Confidential Committee. All published and broadcast news reports became official announcements of the Imperial Army General Headquarters in Tokyo for the duration of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The famous

Tokyo Rose Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific ...

wartime programs were broadcasts by NHK. NHK also broadcast the ''

Gyokuon-hōsō The was a radio broadcast of surrender given by Japanese Emperor Hirohito (Shōwa) on August 15, 1945. It announced to the Japanese people that the Japanese Government had accepted the Potsdam Declaration demanding the unconditional surrender ...

'', the surrender speech made by Emperor

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

, in August 1945. Following the war, in September 1945, the Allied occupation administration under General

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

banned all international broadcasting by NHK, and repurposed several NHK facilities and frequencies for use by the

Far East Network The Far East Network (FEN) was a network of American military radio and television stations, primarily serving U.S. Forces in Japan, Okinawa, the Philippines, and Guam. Overview Now known as the American Forces Network-Japan (AFN-Japan), wit ...

(now

American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...

). Japanese-American radio broadcaster

Frank Shozo Baba Frank Shōzō Baba (フランク正三馬場, January 3, 1915 – January 16, 2008) was a Japanese American Nisei who made radio broadcasts during World War II in the United States and in post-war Japan. He spent twelve years in Japan from the a ...

joined NHK during this time and led an early post-war revamp of its programming. Radio Japan resumed overseas broadcasts in 1952. A new was enacted in 1950, which made NHK a listener-supported independent corporation and simultaneously opened the market for

commercial broadcasting Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship. It was the United States′ first model of radio (an ...

in Japan. NHK started

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

broadcasting in 1953, followed by its educational TV channel in 1959 and color television broadcasts in 1960. NHK opened the first stage of its current headquarters in Japan's capital city's special ward

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

as an international broadcasting center for the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

, the first widely televised Olympic Games. The complex was gradually expanded through 1973, when it became the headquarters for NHK. The previous headquarters adjacent to

Hibiya Park Hibiya Park (日比谷公園 ''Hibiya Kōen'') is a park in Chiyoda City, Tokyo, Japan. It covers an area of 161,636.66 m2 (40 acres) between the east gardens of the Imperial Palace to the north, the Shinbashi district to the southeast and the Ka ...

was redeveloped as the Hibiya City high-rise complex.

Satellite broadcasting

NHK began experimental satellite broadcasting with the NHK BS 1 channel in 1984, followed by NHK BS 2 in 1985. Both channels began regular broadcasts in 1989. In April 2011, BS 1 was rebranded while BS 2 channel ceased broadcasting and was replaced by "BS Premium" which broadcasts on the channel formerly used by BShi. International satellite broadcasts to North America and Europe began in 1995, which led to the launch of

NHK World NHK World-Japan (formerly and also known simply as NHK World) is the international arm of the Japanese state-controlled public broadcaster NHK. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other national public-ser ...

in 1998. It became

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

over the

Astra 19.2°E Astra 19.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 19.2°East orbital position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. Astra 19.2°E used to be commonly kn ...

(

Astra 1L Astra 1L, is one of the Astra geostationary satellites owned and operated by SES, was purchased in June 2003. Launch It was launched on 4 May 2007, at 22:29 UTC by an Ariane 5ECA from Centre Spatial Guyanais at Kourou, French Guiana. Sa ...

) and

Eurobird Eurobird was a series of satellites owned and operated by Eutelsat. The Eurobird satellites provided broadcasting and telecommunication services primarily to the Western and Central European region from orbital positions of 9, 25.5 and 33 degrees ...

satellites in Europe in 2008.

Digital television

NHK began

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...

broadcasting in December 2000 through BS Digital, followed by terrestrial digital TV broadcasts in three major metropolitan areas in 2003. NHK's digital television coverage gradually expanded to cover almost all of Japan by 24 July 2011, when analog transmissions were discontinued (except in three prefectures that were heavily affected by the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

– Iwate,

Miyagi Miyagi may refer to: Places * Miyagi Prefecture, one of the 47 major divisions of Japan * Miyagi, Gunma, a village in Japan, merged into Maebashi in 2004 *Miyagi District, Miyagi, a district in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan Other uses * Miyagi (surna ...

Fukushima may refer to: Japan * Fukushima Prefecture, Japanese prefecture ** Fukushima, Fukushima, capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan ***Fukushima University, national university in Japan *** Fukushima Station (Fukushima) in Fukushima, Fukushim ...

– where it was discontinued on 31 March 2012).

''Studies of Broadcasting''

From 1963 to 1999, NHK published the journal ''Studies of broadcasting: an international annual of broadcasting science''.

Organization

NHK is a dependent corporation chartered by the Japanese

Broadcasting Act Broadcasting Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom that relates to broadcasting. The Bill for an Act with this short title will usually h ...

and primarily funded by license fees. NHK World broadcasting (for overseas viewers/listeners) is funded by the Japanese government. The annual budget of NHK is subject to review and approval by the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...

. The Diet also appoints the twelve-member board of governors (経営委員会 ''keiei iinkai'') that oversees NHK. NHK is managed on a full-time basis by an consisting of a president, vice president and seven to ten managing directors who oversee the areas of NHK operations. The executive board reports to the board of governors.

Subsidiaries

*NHK Enterprises, Inc. (NHKエンタープライズ, abbreviated NEP): Established on April 1, 2005. *NHK Educational Corporation (株式会社 NHKエデュケーショナル): Established on May 30, 1989. *NHK ART, Inc. (株式会社ＮＨＫアート): Established on July 10, 1961. *NHK Publishing, Inc. (NHK出版): Established on April 1, 1931. *Japan International Broadcasting Inc. (株式会社日本国際放送)/JIB: Established on April 4, 2008. *NHK International, Inc. (一般財団法人NHKインターナショナル): Established on July 1, 1980. *NHK Global Media Services, Inc. (株式会社NHKグローバルメディアサービス): Established on April 1, 2009, by merging

NHK Joho Network, Inc. , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

((株)NHK情報ネットワーク) (established on January 1, 1989) and

Japan Teletex Co. Ltd. Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(日本文字放送) (established in 1985). *NHK Cosmomedia America, Inc.: Created by merging

Japan Network Group Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(Media International Corporation) and

NHK Enterprises America, Inc. , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestria ...

on April 1, 2010, but its licence was granted on November 12, 2008. The company's logo was filed on March 23, 2010, and registered on December 13, 2011. *NHK Cosmomedia (Europe) Limited: Created by merging

JSTV is a Japanese television broadcasting company serving viewers in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Launched in March 1990 and broadcasting from London, it carries the programming from the NHK World Premium service in the regions serve ...

(company founded on November 8, 1989) and NHK Enterprises Europe in April 2010. *NHK Technologies, Inc. (株式会社ＮＨＫテクノロジーズ): Established on April 1, 2019, by merging NHK Integrated Technology Inc. (株式会社ＮＨＫアイテック) and NHK Media Technology, Inc. (株式会社NHKメディアテクノロジー). *Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (株式会社　放送衛星システム)/B-SAT: Established on April 13, 1993. *NHK Engineering System, Inc. (一般財団法人ＮＨＫエンジニアリングシステム): Established on December 22, 1981. *NHK GAKUEN (学校法人 NHK学園): Established in 1962-10-01 (学校法人日本放送協会学園). It was renamed to the current name on April 1, 2018. *

NHK Symphony Orchestra The is a Japanese broadcast orchestra based in Tokyo. The orchestra gives concerts in several venues, including the NHK Hall, Suntory Hall, and the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. History The orchestra began as the ''New Symphony Orchestra'' o ...

, Tokyo (公益財団法人 NHK交響楽団): Established on April 27, 1942, as Japan Symphony Orchestra (財団法人日本交響楽団). On August 1, 1951, it was renamed to NHK Symphony Orchestra (財団法人NHK交響楽団). It became a public interest incorporated foundation, and was renamed to current name on April 1, 2010. *NHK Public Welfare Organization/NHK HEARTS (社会福祉法人NHK厚生文化事業団): Established on August 31, 1960. *NHK Promotions Inc. (株式会社NHKプロモーション)/(株式会社エヌエイチケイプロモーション): Established on October 1, 1977, as NHK Promote Service Inc. (株式会社NHKプロモートサービス). It was renamed to current name in October 1989. *NHK CULTURE CENTER (株式会社エヌエイチケイ文化センター)/(NHKカルチャー): Established on December 1, 1978. *NHK SERVICE CENTER, INC. (一般財団法人 NHK サービスセンター): Established on February 28, 1951. *NHK BUSINESS SERVICES INC. (NHK営業サービス株式会社): Established on January 17, 1990. *BS Conditional Access Systems Co., Ltd. (株式会社ビーエス・コンディショナルアクセスシステムズ)/

B-CAS B-CAS (BS Conditional Access Systems Co., Ltd.) is a vendor and operator of the ISDB CAS system in Japan, largely owned by the public broadcaster NHK with some other electronics companies and broadcasters airing in BSAT. It also refers to the rec ...

(ビーキャス): Established on February 22, 2000. *NHK Business Create Inc. (株式会社ＮＨＫビジネスクリエイト): Established on April 1, 2009, by merger (株式会社NHKオフィス企画), (株式会社NHK共同サービス). *NHK-Communications Training Institute (一般財団法人NHK放送研修センター): Established on August 8, 1985.

Former subsidiaries

*NHK Integrated Technology Inc. (株式会社ＮＨＫアイテック): Established on July 23, 1969, as NHK Integrated Technology Inc. (全日本テレビサービス株式会社). It was merged into NHK Technologies, Inc. on April 1, 2019. *NHK Media Technology, Inc. (株式会社NHKメディアテクノロジー): Established in April 2008 by merging NHK Technical Service (株式会社NHKテクニカルサービス) (established October 9, 1984) and NHK Computer Service (株式会社NHKコンピューターサービス). It was merged into NHK Technologies, Inc. on April 1, 2019.

License fee

NHK is funded by , a system analogous to the license fee used in some English-speaking countries. The Broadcasting Act which governs NHK's funding stipulates anyone with equipment able to receive NHK must pay. The fee is standardized, with discounts for office workers and students who commute, as well a discount for residents of

Okinawa prefecture is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city o ...

. For viewers making annual payments by credit card with no special discounts, the reception fee is 13,600 yen per year for terrestrial reception only, and 24,090 yen per year for both terrestrial and broadcast satellite reception. However, the

specifies no punitive actions for nonpayment; as a result, after a rash of NHK-related

scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

s including an accounting one, the number of people who had not paid the license fee surpassed one million watchers. This incident sparked debate over the fairness of the fee system. In 2006, the NHK opted to take

legal action In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...

against those most flagrantly in violation of the law. This fee and how it is charged is unpopular with some citizens. This led to the formation of

The Party to Protect the People from NHK NHK Party ( ja, NHK党, ), self-abbreviated as the NHK (NHK), also known as Anti-NHK Party in English language media, is a populist and single-issue political party in Japan founded on 17 June 2013 by activist Takashi Tachibana. The party's origi ...

( ja, NHKから国民を守る党, ''NHK kara Kokumin wo Mamoru Tō''), also known as , a

single-issue political party Single-issue politics involves political campaigning or political support based on one essential policy area or idea. Political expression One weakness of such an approach is that effective political parties are usually coalitions of factions ...

, which has protested this fee with representatives in the

upper house An upper house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smalle ...

TV programming

NHK broadcasts a variety of programming. The following are noteworthy.

News

NHK offers local, national, and world news reports. ''

NHK News 7 is the early evening news program broadcast domestically on NHK General TV and internationally on NHK World Premium. It has been on the air daily since April 5, 1993, from 7:00pm to 7:30pm ( JST).

'' airs daily and is broadcast bilingually with both Japanese and English audio tracks on NHK General TV and NHK's international channels TV Japan and

. The flagship news program ''

News Watch 9 , stylized as ''NEWS WATCH 9'' is the flagship evening news program of the public Japanese broadcaster, NHK. It airs weekdays on NHK General Television and worldwide on NHK World Premium and is also available on the networks video-on-demand servi ...

'' is also bilingual and also airs on NHK General TV and the international channels and NHK World Premium. ''World News'', a program which airs bulletins from international broadcasters interpreted in Japanese, is aired on NHK BS1 with ''Catch! Sekai no Top News'' in the morning and ''International News Report'' at night, with the latter also airing on NHK World Premium. News on NHK BS1 is aired at 50 minutes past the hour except during live sport events. NHK also offers news for the deaf (which airs on NHK Educational TV), regional news (which airs on NHK General TV) and children's news. '' Newsline'' is an English-language newscast designed for foreign viewers and airs on

. In his book ''Broadcasting Politics in Japan: NHK and Television News'', Ellis S. Krauss states: 'In the 1960s and 1970s, external critics of NHK news were complaining about the strict neutrality, the lack of criticism of government, and the 'self-regulation in covering events'. Krauss claims that little had changed by the 1980s and 1990s. After the

Fukushima nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...

in 2011, NHK was criticised for underplaying the dangers from

radioactive contamination Radioactive contamination, also called radiological pollution, is the deposition of, or presence of radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or gases (including the human body), where their presence is unintended or undesirab ...

Emergency reporting

Under the Broadcasting Act, NHK is under the obligation to broadcast early warning emergency reporting in times of natural disasters such as earthquakes and

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

s. Their national network of seismometers in cooperation with the

Japan Meteorological Agency The , abbreviated JMA, is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It is charged with gathering and providing results for the public in Japan that are obtained from data based on daily scientific observation an ...

makes NHK capable of delivering earthquake early warnings seconds after detection, as well as a more detailed report with Shindo intensity measurements within two-to-three minutes after the quake. They also broadcast air attack warnings in the event of war, using the

J-Alert J-Alert ( ja, J－ALERT/Jアラート, J Arāto; full name ja, 全国瞬時警報システム, Zenkoku Shunji Keihō Shisutemu, National Early Warning System, label=none) is the early warning system used in Japan. J-Alert was launched in Februa ...

system. All warnings are broadcast in Japanese, with tsunami warnings also delivered in four foreign languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, Korean and Portuguese (Japan has small

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

and Brazilian populations). The warnings were broadcast in these languages during the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Sports

NHK broadcasts

sumo wrestling is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

games,

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

games, and a range of other sports. Their broadcast of the last two days of October 1952's autumn sumo tournament became the first ever televised sports broadcast in Japan.

Music

The

, financially sponsored by NHK, was formerly (until 1951) the Japanese Symphony Orchestra. Its website details the orchestra's history and ongoing concert programme. Since 1953, NHK has broadcast the ''

Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...

'' song contest on New Year's Eve, ending shortly before midnight.

Drama

A sentimental morning show, a weekly

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—''Portrait of Hel ...

and a year-long show, the '' Taiga drama'', spearhead the network's fiction offerings. NHK is also making efforts at broadcasting dramas made in foreign countries as .

Children

The longest running children's show in Japan, started broadcasting in 1959 and still airs to this day Monday-Friday 17:36-18:00 JST, Sunday 17:30-17:54 JST with rebroadcasts Tuesday-Sunday 5:00-5:24 JST on NHK World Premium.

Employee and internal issues

Insider trading ban

In 2007, three employees of NHK were fined and fired for

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...

. They had profited by trading shares based on exclusive NHK knowledge. On 11 July 2008, NHK introduced a ban prohibiting stock trading by employees, numbering around 5,700, who had access to its internal news information management system. The employees were required to pledge in writing that they would not trade in stocks, and were required to gain approval from senior staff in order to sell shares they already held. NHK banned short-term stock trading completed in periods of six months or less for all other employees. The ban did not extend to employees' families, nor did NHK request any reports on their transactions.

Overwork death

On 24 July 2013, a reporter at NHK Metropolitan Broadcasting Center died of

congestive heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

. In May 2014, Shibuya Labor Standards Inspection Office of the Tokyo Labor Bureau certified it as a ''

karōshi , which can be translated into "overwork death", is a Japanese term relating to occupation-related sudden death. The most common medical causes of karoshi deaths are heart attacks and strokes due to stress and malnourishment or fasting. Mental ...

'' (overwork death). Although NHK did not report on this matter, it was announced in October 2017. Ryōichi Ueda, the chairman of NHK, visited the reporter's parents' home and apologized to them.

On-air issues

Criticism over comments about Japanese wartime history

NHK has occasionally faced various criticisms for its treatment of Japan's wartime history. , the 21st head of NHK, caused controversy by discussing Japan's actions in

at his first news conference after being appointed on 20 December 2013. It was reported Momii said NHK should support the Japanese government in its territorial dispute with China and South Korea. He also caused controversy by what some describe as the playing down of the

comfort women Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese '' ia ...

issue in World War II, according to the ''Taipei Times'', stating " outhKorea's statements that Japan is the only nation that forced this are puzzling. 'Give us money, compensate us', they say, but since all of this was resolved by the Japan-Korea peace treaty, why are they reviving this issue? It's strange." It was subsequently reported by ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'' that on his first day at NHK Momii asked members of the executive team to hand in their resignation on the grounds they had all been appointed by his predecessor. At the end of April 2014, a number of civil society groups protested against Katsuto Momii's continuing tenure as director-general of NHK. One of the groups, the , issued a public letter asking for the resignation of Momii on the grounds the remarks he made at his inaugural press conference were explosive. The letter stated that if Momii did not resign by the end of April that its members would freeze their payments of the licence fee for half a year. On 17 October 2014, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' claimed to have received internal NHK documents which banned any reference to the

Rape of Nanking The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...

, to Japan's use of wartime sex slaves during World War II, and to its territorial dispute with China in its English-language broadcasting.

Black Lives Matter video

On 10 June 2020, NHK apologized and took down an 80-second video about the

Black Lives Matter movement Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police br ...

and

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internati ...

that was criticized for its "crude" animation of protesters and its focus on economic inequality rather than police brutality. An official statement was released through NHK's official website signed by Yuichi Tabata, head of NHK's International News Division.

Olympics documentary claims

On 9 January 2022, NHK issued an apology over false allegations made in Director Naomi Kawase's Tokyo Olympics documentary. Kawase was selected by the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

in 2018 to cover Japanese reactions to the event and later, during the Coronavirus pandemic. Footage and captions in the documentary alleged that protesters were being paid money to attend anti-Olympics rallies. One of the men interviewed later stated he was "unsure" if he had actually attended any anti-Olympics rallies. NHK Osaka cited "editorial oversights" and "deficiencies in research," issuing an apology. Some anti-Olympic activists demanded that the documentary should be removed. Some activists were concerned that the misinformation was spread by NHK to silence those who opposed Tokyo Olympics during the pandemic. NHK denied that the footage was deliberately fabricated to mislead the public. On 13 January 2022 the NHK Osaka director

Terunobu Maeda is a Japanese investor who has been the President and CEO of Mizuho Financial Group (2002–2009) and Chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association (2005–2006). He’s currently the president of NHK. Maeda was born in Kumamoto, raised in Nak ...

apologized during a press conference, admitting that the captions "should not have been included." Again he denied that the incident was a fabrication.

Logos

File:NHK.png, 1926–1942 File:NHK logo (pre-1995).svg, 1962–1995 File:NHK logo.svg, 1995–2020 File:NHK Logo 2.svg, 1995–2020 (alternate) File:NHK logo 2020.svg, 2020–present

References

Explanatory notes

Citations

General sources

*Johnston, Eric (7 July 2009)
"NHK a fount of info, a lot of it from the government"
''

'', p. 3. *Seidensticker, Edward (1990)
''Tokyo Rising: The City Since the Great Earthquake''
New York: Knopf. .

External links

* {{Authority control 1924 establishments in Japan Commercial-free television networks Government-owned companies based in Tokyo International Emmy Awards Current Affairs & News winners Japanese-language television stations Television networks in Japan Mass media companies based in Tokyo Organizations established in 1926 Peabody Award winners Publicly funded broadcasters Radio in Japan Television channels and stations established in 1953 Shibuya