NHK General TV - Startup/Sign-on (2021)
Copyright (c) 2021 Japan Broadcasting Corporation
The Japan Broadcasting Corporation, or the Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK/日本放送協会) - as it has always been known by this Romanized initialism in Japanese, is Japan’s only public broadcaster and is funded by receiving fees collected from every household with a television set, and this financial independence has enabled it to deliver impartial and high-quality programs free from influence of a third party or the government.
NHK's earliest forerunner was the Tokyo Broadcasting Station, founded in 1924 under the leadership of Count Goto Shinpei. Tokyo Broadcasting Station, along with separate organizations in Osaka and Nagoya, began radio broadcasts in 1925, and these three stations merged under the first incarnation of NHK in August 1926.
NHK began shortwave broadcasting on an experimental basis in the 1930s and started regular English and Japanese shortwave broadcasts in 1935, initially to cater ethnic Japanese listeners in Hawaii and the west coast of North America. By the late 1930s, NHK's overseas broadcasts were known as Radio Tokyo, which became an official name in 1941.
But in November that same year, the Imperial Japanese Army nationalised all public news agencies and coordinated their efforts via the Information Liaison Confidential Committee, turning it into a propaganda outlet for Japan’s increasingly militaristic government. All published and broadcast news reports became official announcements of the Imperial Army General Headquarters in Tokyo for the duration of World War II. The famous Tokyo Rose wartime programs were broadcast by NHK. It was also NHK itself that airs the Gyokuon-hoso, the surrender speech made by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August 1945.
Following the end of the war, the Allied occupation administration under General Douglas MacArthur banned all international broadcasting by NHK, repurposing several NHK facilities and frequencies for use by the Far East Network (now presenetly known as the American Forces Network). Japanese American radio broadcaster Frank Shozo Baba joined NHK during this time and led an early post-war revamp of its programming.
NHK began its television service in 1953 - this came just years after sovereign rights were restored following the Allied Occupation, and years after an enactment of a new broadcast law, which forbade government intervention in programming and also permitted competition by private broadcasting stations. The Japanese were yearning for peace and democracy after been years of militarism, and NHK, as a public broadcaster, was expected to disseminate accurate and trustworthy information.
Today, NHK operates two terrestrial TV networks - NHK General TV and NHK E, three satellite channels - NHK BS, BS Premium 4K and BS8K, and three radio channels in Japan. Its operations are run through a network of 54 domestic stations and 31 overseas bureaus, nature, science, culture, drama and education channels. NHK was the first television station in the world to broadcast in high-definition (HD) and in 8K resolution.