NHK and LDP politicians

[Aaron Gerow]

Since the subject of NHK came up recently, I thought I should report on  
the most recent scandal. It is actually a continuation of a problem  
that was reported some time ago on KineJapan. Back in 2000, when a  
network international organizations decided to hold a international  
tribunal on war crimes committed by Japan against women during WWII,  
NHK produced a show on the topic, including interviews with the major  
participants. However, only days before the show was broadcast, NHK  
suddenly changed the content, cutting out interviews with participants  
and adding biased comments by known right-wing revisionists, basically  
declaring that Japan committed no war crimes against women. A summary  
of the incident is available.

http://www1.jca.apc.org/vaww-net-japan/english/backlash/ 
mediasabotage.html

NHK is being sued over the incident.

Well, it has just come out that two major LDP politicians, including  
the popular Abe Shinzo, had phoned NHK just before the program was  
re-cut to tell NHK that it should be more "neutral" in their stance  
(read: should not give air to criticisms of Japan). Opposition  
politicians are livid about an apparent case of political manipulation  
of NHK content.


Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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