Sometimes it seems my mailbox is a place for complaints. Today it is NHK fees. Wednesday's column will consider NTT's high initial charge for phone service. Don't look for ways to avoid the inevitable; your daily life entails certain obligations.

A gentleman writes, "What's with NHK? We have guys coming to the door and calling on the phone asking for payment. We also receive mail telling us how easy it is to pay at a bank or post office. My wife says we must pay; it is a rule and everyone else does. I disagree. I don't watch NHK which I don't like and subscribe to a cable company so I can watch what I do like. If it is a tax, why are people coming to the door to collect? I have never heard of a government anywhere imposing a tax and then not making sure it had a way to get its hands on the money. But then, maybe Japan is unique," he speculates, as many have before him.

I first wrote about NHK fees in 1975 when the cost was 315 yen a month for black and white sets and 465 yen for color. Then people complained because almost nothing was available in English. Many avoided payment either because they didn't know about the fees or they used the familiar language-barrier excuse. In those early days of TV, in addition to sharp-eyed inspectors who patrolled neighborhoods looking for antennas, there were low-flying search helicopters sent out on the same mission -- this in a day when some people put them up even when they didn't own a TV, to impress their neighbors. It didn't matter then and it doesn't now whether or not you watch NHK. If you own a set, you owe the money.