“NHK Newsline” boasts a long history. With roots going back to 2000, the program first emerged in 2007. Today, it is the flagship English-language news show of NHK World-Japan, the international service of Japan’s public broadcaster, covering events from Japan, Asia and around the world on the hour, every hour, with its trademark “Asian perspective.”
“As a Japanese media outlet, NHK World-Japan is certainly different from Western media in the way that it views and conveys the news,” explained Wataru Fujishita, the deputy managing director of the NHK World Department. “We focus on Asian news in an accurate and in-depth way, rather than going for something simpler that just sounds good. Our style may seem a little flat at first but if you are not a fan of often sensationalized reporting style of Western media, you may find what we do refreshing. NHK’s reporting is of course also done from an Asian perspective. It’s not something that’s written down in a rulebook or something that we think about consciously. But being an organization in Asia, it just happens organically.”
A good example of that perspective might be NHK World-Japan’s continued focus on the situation in Myanmar. While the country certainly was the focus of global outlets in early 2021 when a military junta deposed the elected government, the coverage of the resulting turmoil has notably waned in the West. Not at NHK, though. In fact, an NHK Top Docs documentary “Myanmar Coup: Digital Resistance” was a nominee for a 2022 International Emmy. “NHK has staff on the ground in Myanmar,” Fujishita said, “but the situation there has gotten very difficult in recent years. To tell the truth about what is happening in the country, we’re now relying more on footage shot by local residents. We also have our studio in Bangkok, which reports on the situation in Myanmar and other parts of Southeast Asia.”
“NHK Newsline” also has a studio in New York that has been making NHK World-Japan more accessible to American audiences since 2021. This drive for a wider international reach has several objectives.
“ I would like to continue to report the news in a more accurate and fair manner, from what’s happening in Asia to the recent war in Ukraine or the U.S. midterm elections that we reported on without taking a political stance on the event,” Fujishita said.
Additionally, “NHK Newsline” is a great information source for stories Western audiences might not have been aware of, like the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, also known as Asia’s Nobel Prize. NHK World-Japan was one of the few English-language outlets reporting on the eye doctor Tadashi Hattori winning the prestigious award in 2022 for helping restore the eyesight of 20,000 people in Vietnam free of charge.
The other objective of the program’s all-English broadcasts is helping people. “When there’s a natural disaster, we provide information to foreign residents in Japan who do not speak Japanese about heavy rain, earthquakes, tsunami warnings and more. We are trying to protect people’s lives and property.” And one doesn’t need a TV to access these horizon-expanding, potentially life-saving reports. “We’re placing a lot of emphasis these days on digital dissemination of our contents. There’s of course the NHK World-Japan website, but we’ve also expanded to other platforms like YouTube.”
The “NHK Newsline” crew is reaching out with facts about the world and information that can save lives. All that’s left for audiences to do is tune in and listen to what they have to say.