Earlier this month, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) announced its medium-term budget plan covering three years from fiscal 2015. NHK attaches importance to strengthening its international broadcast services by boosting their budget to ¥22.5 billion in fiscal 2015, up 31.7 percent from fiscal 2014. Over the three years, it envisages increasing spending on these services by ¥10 billion.
Given that the Abe administration and the Liberal Democratic Party are keen on promoting what they regard as national interests through NHK's international broadcasts — and the unfortunate fact that 12 NHK governors are appointed by the prime minister with the consent of the Diet — it is all the more imperative that NHK adhere to the principle of ensuring objectivity in reporting and taking up various opinions on important issues from various angles.
NHK's move comes at a time when a panel of the communications ministry is discussing how to strengthen NHK's broadcasts aimed at overseas audiences. In its interim report issued last week, the panel said that one of the roles of NHK World TV, an English-language service for people outside Japan, should be to accurately convey official views on Japan's important policies and international issues. The panel stated that the TV service can produce economic benefits by helping increase demand for Japanese products and services, and boost the number of tourists visiting Japan, and called for the wider use of subtitles in languages other than English to target more diverse audiences.