NHK Party ( ja, NHK党, ), self-abbreviated as the NHK (NHK), also known as Anti-NHK Party in English language media, is a

populist Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...

and

single-issue 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 faction ...

political party in Japan In Japan, any organization that supports a candidate needs to register itself as a political party. Each of these parties have some local or national influence. This article lists political parties in Japan with representation in the National ...

founded on 17 June 2013 by activist

Takashi Tachibana is a social activist, journalist, accountant and politician who is the founder and leader of . A former assemblyman for the Funabashi City Assembly and the Katsushika Ward Assembly, he was elected to the House of Councillors in the July 20 ...

. The party's original goal was to oppose the license fees for the national broadcasting organization

NHK , 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 terrestr ...

, and its manifesto consisted of only one policy, revising the to scramble NHK's broadcast signal, which would mean that only those who watch NHK pay for it. The party's slogan is "NHK o bukkowasu!" ( ja, NHKをぶっ壊す！, label=none, "Destroy NHK!"). Currently, the party's manifesto have expanded to cover other issues, including lower taxes, increasing military defense capability, and reaching energy independence through nuclear energy. The party has undergone a series of renames, the most recent () being "NHK Party".

History

The founder of the party,

, is a former employee of Japan's national

public broadcasting 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 ...

organization

. He resigned from his position in the accounting department at NHK after having leaked internal corruption to weekly magazine ''

Shūkan Bunshun is a Japanese weekly news magazine ( Shūkanshi) based in Tokyo, Japan, known for its investigative journalism and frequent clashes with the Japanese government. It is considered one of the most influential weekly magazines in the country. Hist ...

'' in 2005. In 2012, he founded the "Tachibana one-man broadcasting station", a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel that vowed to fight against NHK. In 2013, this evolved into The Party to Protect the People from NHK. Tachibana used YouTube to bypass the mass media, which would not cover his activism. Over the years, he used YouTube to gain multiple local council seats, and finally, in 2019, the party won its first seat in the Diet in the summer 2019 House of Councillors election. The party also gained a seat in the House of Representatives when Hodaka Maruyama joined the party on 29 July 2019. The party mainly exists to counter bad behaviour by NHK license fee money collectors, who Tachibana says have connections to the

yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...

. The party issues a special sticker to protect citizen's properties from these collectors, and has a call center to help people avoid paying the license fee. While it is required by law to make a contract with NHK and pay if one owns a device capable of receiving the NHK signal (for example, a regular TV), the law does not impose any punishment for nonpayment of the license fee. Lacking a means of criminal prosecution, NHK has resorted to using debt collectors to pressure people for payment, and Tachibana wants to eliminate the license fee system and make NHK like any other subscription television channel, where only those that want to watch it must pay. The rise of the party is described as part of rising distrust of the

mass media in Japan The mass media in Japan include numerous television and radio networks as well as newspapers and magazines in Japan. For the most part, television networks were established based on capital investments by existing radio networks. Variety shows, ...

by researcher Max Guerrera-Sapone.

Party name history

The party was formed as the NHK License Fee Non-Payment Party (, ) on 17 June 2013, but changed its name a month later on 23 July 2013 to The Party to Protect the People from NHK (, ), commonly shortened to or just N-Koku. Its name was again changed in January 2021 to The Party to Protect our People from NHK (, ), officially abbreviated to . This change, the addition of the character (, our) before 国民 (, people/citizen) did not alter the meaning of the party's name, but was intended to allow the party to use the official abbreviation , that of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. This was rejected by the Internal Affairs Ministry, however, and so the abbreviation was instead changed to "NHK Party". The party's official website used the English name "The Party to Protect Citizens from NHK", but the English-speaking press has preferred the translation "The Party to Protect the People from NHK". The party again changed its name to The Party that Teaches How to Not Pay the NHK License Fee (, ) on 5 February 2021, and announced that it intended to keep changing its name in future, while maintaining the "NHK Party" short form as the party's common name. On 17 May 2021, the party changed its name to The Party to Protect People from Old Political Parties (, ). On 28 June 2021, the party changed its name to Storm Party (). On 21 July 2021, the party changed its name to The party fighting against NHK in the trial for violating Article 72 of the Attorney Act (). On 20 January 2022, the party changed its name again to The party that protects those who do not pay the NHK license fee (). On 25 April 2022, the party again changed its name to NHK Party (), with its self-abbreviation being "NHK".

Election results

House of Representatives

House of Councillors

Gubernatorial

Notes

References

External links

Takashi Tachibana YouTube Page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:NHK Party Political parties established in 2013 2013 establishments in Japan Single-issue political parties Television in Japan Political parties in Japan Populist parties Populism in Japan Direct democracy parties NHK