NHK World-Japan (formerly and also known simply as NHK World) is the international arm of the Japanese

public broadcaster Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive ...

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other national public-service broadcasters, such as the British

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

(

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

, the international feed of the BBC News channel, etc.),

France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned publicly funded international news television network based in Paris. Its channels, broadcast in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb ...

, or the German DW. Contents are broadcast through

shortwave radio Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the High frequency, high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30& ...

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

, and

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

operators throughout the world, as well as online and through its mobile apps. It is headquartered in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. NHK World-Japan currently provides three main broadcast services: an English-language current affairs TV channel (

NHK World TV NHK World-Japan (formerly and also known simply as NHK World) is the international arm of the Japanese public broadcaster NHK. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other national public-service broadcasters, ...

), a multilingual radio service ( NHK World Radio Japan), and a

Japanese-language is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. ...

general/entertainment TV service (

NHK World Premium NHK World Premium is a TV news and entertainment broadcasting service offered by NHK World-Japan, the international arm of Japan's public broadcaster NHK. The service is aimed towards Japanese Diaspora and the overseas market, similar to worldwi ...

). NHK World-Japan also makes most of its programming available through its website (either

live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film * ''Live'' (2023 film), a Malayalam-language film *'' Live: Phát Trực Tiếp'', a Vietnamese-langua ...

on demand On-demand or on demand may refer to: Manufacturing * Build-on-demand * Just-in-time manufacturing, a methodology for production * Print on demand, printing technology and business process in which new copies of a document are not printed until ...

). A Chinese version of the channel, NHK Huayu Shijie (NHK华语视界), which essentially provides news and select programs from NHK World-Japan with

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

dubbing and/or subtitles, was launched on January 15, 2019, and is only distributed online.

History

NHK World changed to its current name in April 2018, as an effort to "establish wider global recognition" as a service with "Japanese roots". On March 30, 2020, NHK World-Japan implemented a new policy for referring to

Japanese names in modern times consist of a family name (surname) followed by a given name. Japanese names are usually written in kanji, where the pronunciation follows a special set of rules. Because parents when naming children, and foreigners when adoptin ...

, following the common practice in the

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

of listing the

surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

first followed by the

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

, in line with "moves in Japan in general".

Television

NHK World TV (rolling news channel)

NHK World TV started 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 English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

only. It began as a news channel in February 2009. NHK World-Japan's

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

broadcasts have been available in HD by satellite since then. NHK World-Japan HD currently broadcasts from

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly Intel-Sat, Intelsat) is a Luxembourgish-American multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons, Virginia, United States. Originally formed ...

19 166°E, 68.5°E,

Astra 19.2°E Astra 19.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 19.2°East orbital position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. Astra 19.2°E used to be commonl ...

Hot Bird Hot Bird (also styled Hotbird) is a group of satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13 °E over the equator ( orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over Asia, Europe, North Africa, Americas and the Middle East. Only digital r ...

13°E, 58°W, to

SES-3 , SES-3 is a communications satellite operated by SES Americom (later SES World Skies. Now, SES). Spacecraft SES-3 was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC), and is based on the Star-2.4 satellite bus. It is equipped with 24 C-ban ...

103°W. In the United States, NHK World-Japan is available on

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

channels 322 and 2049. 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 Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

and Japanese bank

Mizuho Mizuho () literally means "abundant rice" in Japanese and "harvest" in the figurative sense. It was also an Names of Japan#Other names, ancient name of Japan. It might refer to: Places * Mizuho, Gifu, a city in Gifu * Mizuho, Tokyo, a town in To ...

. The NHK World-Japan

digital on-screen graphic A digital on-screen graphic, digitally originated graphic (DOG, bug, network bug, or screenbug) is a watermark-like station logo that most television broadcasters overlay over a portion of the screen area of their programs to identify the channel ...

is not used at all when shows produced by JIB TV air as paid programming.

Programs

TV programs by NHK World-Japan include: * ''

Begin Japanology ''Weekend Japanology'', ''Begin Japanology'', and ''Japanology Plus'' are Japanese television programs aired on NHK World, and presented by Peter Barakan. The programs explore aspects of traditional and contemporary Japan and interview experts ...

'' and ''Japanology Plus'': A Japanese culture and lifestyle television show with

Peter Barakan Peter Barakan (born 20 August 1951) is an English DJ, freelance broadcaster, and an author of books on music and English language education. He is best known as the presenter of ''Begin Japanology and Japanology Plus'' on NHK World. In Japan, he ...

. * '' Biz Stream'': A weekly business news program featuring the main stories of the week with guest expert analysis. * ''Cool Japan'': Hosted by

Shoji Kokami is a Japanese playwright, director, actor, and filmmaker. Career Born in Niihama, Ehime, Kōkami was attending Waseda University when he founded the theatrical company Daisanbutai (Third Stage). Becoming "one of the prime movers in the 1980s smal ...

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 ''J-Melo'' is a weekly Japanese music television program broadcast by NHK. It is recorded entirely in the English language. It began broadcasting on October 7, 2005. The program is available on NHK's World Service television station, Radio Japan, ...

'': 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 NHK Newsline (stylized as NHK NEWSLiNE, formerly and also simply known as Newsline) ( ''NHK Nyūsurain'') is a foreign news program aired on NHK's international broadcasting service NHK World TV. Produced by Japan International Broadcasting Inc., ...

'': A news program with updates every hour, covering world events and business-related news, as well as providing global weather forecasts. * '' 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'': A current affairs program from the NHK's domestic network Most recently, NHK World-Japan has promoting selections of their

J-drama , also called or J-drama, are television programs that are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. Format All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including romance, comedy, detective stories, horror ...

lineups under ''NHK Drama Showcase''.

NHK World Premium (entertainment channel)

broadcasts a mixture of news, sports and entertainment in

worldwide, via satellite and cable providers, as a subscription service mostly targeted at

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

s. It is marketed with that very name in several regions of the world, including

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. NHK World Premium's contents in Europe were previously shown on

JSTV was a Japanese television broadcasting company serving viewers in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Launched in March 1990 and broadcasting from London, it carried the programming from the NHK World Premium service in the regions serv ...

-branded subscription channels that were ran by NHK Cosmomedia Europe and headquartered in the UK. The service was known as テレビジャパン (

TV Japan TV Japan (テレビジャパン) was a 24-hour Japanese-language television channel geared towards the Japanese diaspora in the United States and Canada. It was the North American carrier of the NHK World Premium service. The channel was owne ...

) in the US, which was run by NHK Cosmomedia America until it closed on March 31, 2024; its replacement streaming service, named Jme, carries an NHK World Premium stream. Contents generally do not carry English subtitles.

Radio

NHK World Radio Japan (RJ) is the international radio arm of NHK. It broadcasts a weekly lineup of news, current affairs, cultural, and educative

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

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: Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Chinese, English, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, Urdu, Vietnamese. Both services are available on

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...

(SW) as well as on the internet.

Radio Japan's shortwave relay stations

NHK World Radio Japan runs a domestic SW relay station on 9750 kHz from 8:00 to 16:00 UTC: *

Yamata ''Yamata'' is a 1919 Hungarian silent drama film directed by Alexander Korda and starring Emil Fenyvessy, Ila Lóth and Gábor Rajnay. The film was made for the state-owned Hungarian film industry during the Hungarian Soviet Republic, and conc ...

It also leases some hours by several external relay stations for English service in: *

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

Vatican State Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (; ), is a landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and seat of the Catholic Church. It became independent from the Kingdom of Italy in ...

Vatican Radio Vatican Radio (; ) is the official broadcasting service of Vatican City. Established in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave, DRM, medium wave, FM, satellite and the Internet. ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Radio France Internationale Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the State media, state-owned international radio news network of France. With 59.5 million listeners in 2022, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world ...

Satellite and internet service

NHK World-Japan broadcasts via C-band and Ku-band satellites around the globe. The programs and content are also available online. * NHK World-Japan: online news (text) and live video stream of the rolling news channel * NHK World Radio Japan: live radio streams,

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

s, and archive programming * Learn Japanese: re-edited versions of series, such as ''Basic Japanese for You'' and ''Brush Up Your Japanese''. Only a limited number of programs are available online for free. * NHK is available on

Apple TV Apple TV is a digital media player and a microconsole developed and marketed by Apple. It is a small piece of networking hardware that sends received media data such as video and audio to a TV or external display. Its media services include ...

Fire TV Amazon Fire TV (formerly stylized as amazon fireTV) is a line of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon since November 2014. The devices are small network appliances that deliver digital audio and video content streamed via ...

, and

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of consumer electronics that includes streaming players, smart TVs (and their operating systems), as well as a free TV streaming service. The brand is owned by Roku, Inc., an American company. As of 2024, Roku is the U ...

streaming media players.

References

External links

*
NHK World Premium
*
NHK World Radio Japan interval signal
{{DEFAULTSORT:NHK World 24-hour television news channels in Japan

World The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

International broadcasters Foreign television channels broadcasting in the United Kingdom English-language television stations State media Cable television in Hong Kong Television channels and stations established in 1995 International Emmy Awards Current Affairs & News winners HD-only channels YouTube channels launched in 2007