This article is about the Japanese broadcaster. For other uses, see NHK (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Nippon Broadcasting System.
NHK (Japanese: 日本放送 協会, Hepburn: Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai, official English name: Japan Broadcasting Corporation) is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized acronym in Japanese, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK is funded by reception fees (受信料, jushinryō), a system analogous to the license fee used in some English-speaking countries. The Broadcast Law which governs NHK's funding stipulates any television equipped to receive NHK is required to pay. The fee is standardized, with discounts for office workers and students who commute, as well a general discount for residents of Okinawa prefecture. For viewers making annual payments by credit card with no other special discounts, the reception fee is 13,600 yen per year for terrestrial reception only, and 24,090 yen per year for both terrestrial and broadcast satellite reception.
NHK offers local, national, and world news reports. NHK News 7 airs daily and is broadcast bilingually with both Japanese and English audio tracks on NHK General TV and NHK's international channels TV Japan and NHK World Premium. The flagship news program News Watch 9 is also bilingual and also airs on NHK General TV and the international channels and NHK World Premium. World News is aired on NHK BS 1 with Catch! Sekai no Top News in the morning and International News Report at night, with the latter also airing on NHK World Premium. News on NHK BS 1 is aired at 50 minutes past the hour except during live sport events.
A sentimental morning show, a weekly jidaigeki and a year-long show, the ‘‘Taiga drama’’, spearhead the network’s fiction offerings. NHK is also making efforts at broadcasting dramas made in foreign countries as "Overseas Drama (海外ドラマ, Kaigai Dorama)".
The longest running children's show in Japan, Okaasan to Issho (おかあさんといっしょ, With Mother, 1959), still airs to this day[when?] on NHK-ETV.
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