A member of NHK's board of governors wrote an essay praising a right-wing activist who committed suicide in the Asahi Shimbun building in 1993, raising questions about the public broadcaster's political neutrality.
The memorial essay by Michiko Hasegawa, a philosopher and professor emeritus at Saitama University, was distributed in October to people attending a memorial ceremony for Shusuke Nomura, who shot himself to protest a cartoon printed in the Shukan Asahi that ridiculed his political activist group. The suicide was criticized by the media as a violent attack on freedom of the press.
Hasegawa's essay is likely to raise questions about her political neutrality as a member of NHK's board, which has the power to appoint and sack the network's chairman, who holds the ultimate editorial control over all NHK programs.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.