NHK World-Japan is the international arm of the Japanesepublic broadcaster NHK. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other national public-service broadcasters such as the BritishBBC or the GermanDW, among many others. Contents are broadcast through shortwave radio, satellite and cable operators throughout the world, as well as online and through its mobile apps. It is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. NHK World-Japan currently provides three main broadcast services: an English-language current affairs TV channel of the same name, a multilingual radio service, and a Japanese-language general/entertainment TV service. NHK World-Japan also makes most of its programming available through its website. A Chinese version of the news TV channel, NHK华语视界, which essentially provides news and select programs from NHK World-Japan in Mandarin dubbing and/or subtitles, was launched on 15 January 2019 and is only distributed online. The branch was rebranded from its former name of NHK World in April 2018.
Television
NHK World-Japan (rolling news channel)
NHK began international TV broadcasting services for North America and Europe in 1995. On April 1, 1998, then-called NHK World Television started broadcasting. Today's NHK World-Japan is a current affairs and cultural channel that broadcasts internationally via satellite and cable TV. Programming is produced in English only. It began as a news channel in February 2009. NHK World-Japan's free-to-air broadcasts have been available in high definition by satellite since then, and NHK World-Japan HD currently broadcasts from 105.5°E, 68.5°E, Astra 28.2°E, Astra 19.2°E, 58°W, and 99°W. Some of the shows are produced by production studio JIB TV, which is 60% owned by NHK, with the remaining 40% owned by private investors like Microsoft and Japanese bank Mizuho. The "NHK World-Japan" DOG logo is not used at all when shows produced by JIB TV are aired as a paid programming.
NHK World Premium broadcasts a mixture of news, sports and entertainment in Japanese language worldwide, via satellite and cable providers, as a subscription service mostly targeted at Japanese expatriates. It is marketed with that very name in several regions of the world, including Asia, Oceania and Latin America. In Europe, NHK World Premium's contents are shown instead on JSTV-branded subscription channels run by NHK Cosmomedia Europe and headquartered in the UK. The service is known as テレビジャパン in the US, which is run by NHK Cosmomedia America. Contents generally do not carry English subtitles.
Programs
TV programs by NHK shown on its international outlets include:
Cool Japan: Hosted by Shoji Kokami and Risa Stegmayer; some aspects of Japanese customs are considered "cool" by foreigners. Cool Japan is a television show that illustrates the quickly changing Japanese culture and how it is perceived by the international community that have recently made Japan their home.
J-Melo: A music program hosted by May J., featuring the latest developments in Japanese music, selections of hit songs, and diverse material from a wide range of different music genres - pop, rock, jazz and classical.
NHK Newsline: A news program with updates every hour, covering world events and business-related news, as well as providing global weather forecasts.
*Biz Stream: A weekly business news program featuring the main stories of the week with guest expert analysis.
Somewhere Street: A travel program which explores a different city each episode, from a tourist's perspective walking through a city.
Today's Close-up: dubbed current affairs program from the NHK's domestic network.
Begin Japanology and Japanology Plus: A Japanese culture and lifestyle television show with Peter Barakan.
Japan-easy: An educational program used to learn basics of the Japanese language using English language. The program is available in both curriculums, latter known as Japan-easy II. Each curriculum has 24 episodes.
Radio
NHK World Radio Japan broadcasts a weekly lineup of news, current affairs, cultural and educative radio program focusing on Japan and Asia, for a daily total of 65 hours of broadcasts. Radio Japan provides two main feeds:
The General Service broadcasts worldwide in Japanese and English.
The Regional Service broadcasts to specific geographical zones in 17 languages: English, Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Chinese, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Both services are available on shortwave as well as on the internet.
