Japan Press Weekly

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2017 January 18 - 24 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Sponsor of TV program slandering anti-US base protesters has ties with rightwing extremists

The sponsor of a TV program which recently slandered local residents opposing the construction of U.S. Osprey landing pads in Okinawa is a company closely connected with the far right, Akahata reported on January 20.

A terrestrial broadcaster, Tokyo MX, aired a news magazine program “News Joshi” on January 2, which claimed that Okinawans protesting against the U.S. base construction are “hired” to do so.

According to Akahata, the sponsor of that program is DHC Corporation, a well-known cosmetics maker in Japan. DHC placed a program production company under its umbrella in 2014 and since then the subsidiary company has produced programs which introduce ultra-rightist perspectives.

“News Joshi” is one of the programs made by the subsidiary. DHC bought a broadcast time frame from Tokyo MX and airs the newsmagazine.

Akahata examined Tokyo MX’s financial statements between fiscal 2011 and 2015, and found that around 20% of its sales proceeds came from DHC every year, by far the largest amount from a single source.

Shiraishi Hajime, the representative of OurPlanet-TV, a non-profit organization, pointed out that behind this issue lies the fact that relatively small TV stations are very often subservient to their sponsors. He stressed the need for the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization (BPO) to investigate if broadcasters are checking the contents of programs offered by their sponsors.

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On January 19, citizens staged a protest rally in front of the Tokyo MX head office in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward. They demanded that the broadcaster air an official apology for airng such slander and misinformation disguised as news.

Past related article:
> Commercial TV program slanders Okinawans opposing US base construction [January 7, 2017]