NHK President Nobuo Inaba apologized Thursday over an incident in which a Chinese newscaster said on the Japanese public broadcaster's Chinese-language news earlier this week that the Senkaku Islands, which are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China, are Chinese territory.
Inaba made the apology at a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on the day.
"We take the incident extremely seriously," Inaba told reporters after the meeting. "We deeply apologize to our viewers and listeners and to the people (of Japan)."
NHK, also known as Japan Broadcasting Corp., has explained that the Chinese newscaster, in his 40s, was an outside staff member who had a contract with an NHK-affiliated organization. His contract was terminated on Wednesday.
NHK is considering seeking damages from and filing a criminal complaint against the Chinese man, while working to strengthen its governance system.
As a preventive measure, the broadcaster began airing recorded Chinese news stories on its international radio service on Tuesday. It also plans to use recorded news for other languages starting later this month, and is considering introducing voices generated by artificial intelligence to read out news, if necessary.
NHK plans to take punitive action against officials involved in the incident after determining the cause.