Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2014 February 5 - 11 [HISTORY]

NHK governor: Nanjing massacre never happened

Hyakuta Naoki, who publicly stands by his historical view denying the Nanjing Massacre and justifying Japan’s past war of aggression, should resign as governor of the nation’s public broadcaster, NHK, reported Akahata.

He is a top selling novelist and was appointed as one of the 12 members of the NHK Board of Governors by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo late last year.

Hyakuta on February 3 attended a street speech rally held by rightist Tokyo gubernatorial candidate Tamogami Toshio, former Japanese Air Self-Defense Force top official.

Hyakuta in his speech said that the Nanjing Massacre “never happened” and made remarks rationalizing the Japanese Imperial military’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Reacting to criticism against him for making these controversial remarks as a person involved in public broadcasting, Hyakuta on Twitter commented, “Those criticizing me are idiots!”

When the governing board held a meeting after NHK’s new president Momii Katsuto at his first press conference made abusive remarks about “comfort women”, the right-wing novelist tweeted, “I’ll observe which of the board members criticizes the president for his remarks.”

The Broadcast Act has no provision prohibiting the NHK governing members from participating in political activities. The law, however, requires them to recognize that radio and television programs should be provided from a fair, politically neutral position and contribute to a sound development of democracy.

Meanwhile, NHK’s guidelines on broadcasting put importance on maintaining political neutrality in news coverage, and state that this stance should be adopted by anyone in NHK regardless of job title.

The 12 NHK board members should comply with the guidelines as they have broad authority over company operations such as the selection of the president, planning for programming, and budget approval.


Past related articles:
> Public anger growing at NHK president’s remarks [January 28,2014]
> NHK chair justifies Japan’s wartime sex slavery system [January 26,2014]
> PM Abe tries to fill NHK top echelons with his friends [November 13,2013]