This essay examines NHK’s coverage on the eve of a decisive national election and questions its role as a publicly funded broadcaster. It critiques media bias, election coverage, and the responsibility of national broadcasting in a democratic society.
I have repeatedly stated that NHK is, in substance, a state broadcaster.
That is an undeniable fact.
That is why NHK can charge license fees to the public.
Those who do not pay are even subject to legal action.
In other words, it functions essentially as a state broadcaster.
NHK’s flagship news program is the 7 p.m. news.
The recent bias of those who control and produce this program—indeed everyone involved—has become intolerable.
Tomorrow is an undeniable fact that even President Trump would understand.
It is the decisive election day that will determine the course and fate of Japan.
Yet NHK did not say a single word urging viewers to go vote no matter what happens.
Not once did it say that your vote determines the nation’s destiny and direction, that this is the very foundation of democracy.
Instead, as if to discourage people from going to the polls, it repeatedly emphasized forecasts of heavy snow and severe cold.
Should not a national broadcaster urge citizens to vote despite the cold and snow, reminding them that voting is their most important right and duty?
Yet what they chose to broadcast at length was that American rock singer Bruce Springsteen protested measures taken by the Trump administration to deport illegal immigrants after an organization resisting those measures was fired upon and someone died.
They aired at length that he protested and wrote a song.
I once loved Bruce Springsteen’s music as much as anyone.
As I have written before, when he first came to Japan I even left work early to attend his Osaka Castle Hall concert.
But after learning that he, like many in Hollywood, is merely a supporter of the Democratic Party—essentially a pseudo-moralist—I have not listened to his music at all since then.
I have no interest in what music he produces now.
Bruce Springsteen came from the working class.
Yet he earned unimaginable wealth unique to America and is now an ultra-famous celebrity.
The moment Obama made the foolish remark that America would cease to be the world’s policeman, China began illegally occupying the South China Sea.
That is an undeniable fact.
Likewise, China’s unspeakable oppression and human rights abuses against the Uyghur people are undeniable facts.
China has unleashed boundless tyranny through bottomless evil and plausible lies.
It has realized in the 21st century the surveillance society Orwell predicted, becoming the worst dictatorship in history.
Yet I have never heard of Bruce Springsteen raising his voice against these undeniable realities.
On the contrary, he enjoyed performing for Obama, who reveled in his position as America’s supreme celebrity, inviting figures like Paul McCartney to perform at the White House.
Springsteen likewise performed for him.
Despite tomorrow being the most important postwar election determining Japan’s fate, NHK carried yet another anti-Trump report.
They reported that a Trump campaign staffer mocked the Obamas in a post, which was criticized as racist and deleted hours later.
Not a single word urging citizens to vote tomorrow.
Only repeated anti-Trump coverage.
Because President Trump had praised Prime Minister Takaichi and expressed support for her administration the day before.
It is an undeniable fact that those controlling NHK’s news division are reporting exactly in line with the wishes of China and the Korean Peninsula to a degree that can hardly be dismissed as coincidence.
Tonight’s NHK 7 p.m. news was obsessed with neutralizing Trump’s support for the Takaichi administration.
There exists no other state broadcaster like this in the world.
Only fools living off the United Nations fail to recognize that Japan’s “freedom of the press” has gone far beyond reasonable limits.