Japan Press Weekly

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2015 July 15 - 21 [POLITICS]

Storm of protest from viewers moves NHK to air Diet proceedings on war bills live

Meeting a storm of protest from viewers and listeners, NHK changed its initial program schedule and aired live the July 16 proceedings of the Lower House plenary session regarding a package of war bills.

NHK, the only public broadcaster in Japan, on the previous day did not broadcast live the intensive deliberations on the bills taking place with the attendance of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in the Lower House special committee. The broadcaster admitted to receiving “a lot of protest” from concerned citizens (NHK Public Relations Department).

Many public figures also expressed their strong concern via Twitter. Professor Emeritus of Kobe College Uchida Tatsuru tweeted, “NHK will leave a stain on its history as a news medium. Many NHK employees must be feeling ashamed.” Sports Writer Ototake Hirotada also said, “So many people are concerned about the bills but NHK ignores this. Can we still call it the ‘public broadcaster’?”

NHK eventually changed its mind and decided to broadcast the plenary debates on TV. On a news program aired immediately after the passage of the bills in the House of Representative, the corporation inserted news tickers, “The enactment of the bills has become highly probable,” many times.

However, the discussion of this legislation has not started yet in the Upper House. The Lower House passage does not mean an automatic enactment. More than 60% of respondents in every opinion poll expressed opposition to the bills’ enactment in the current Diet session.

The “highly probable enactment” telop is tantamount to telling the general public that “it is no use opposing”. To try to guide the general public in a specific direction without taking into account the two-chamber Diet system will harm the very principle of parliamentary democracy.