Inside NHK Japan: Trust, Science & The Future of Broadcasting

When I was in Tokyo in May, I was inundated with recommendations about where to go. The famous crossing in Shibuya was packed with excited tourists, and yet for me, the real highlight lay a few streets away at the headquarters of NHK, Japan’s largest public broadcaster. 

There, I was lucky enough to meet with Mushiake Hideki, an executive reporter and Vice Head of the Science Department at NHK. With a career spanning 3 decades, Hideki shared valuable insights on NHK’s ability to preserve trust, the complexities of science reporting, and the future of broadcasting in Japan.  

NHK’s trust lies in its ability to tackle fake news and report on disasters

NHK shares many similarities with the UK’s BBC. Both are publicly funded, legally mandated to remain neutral, and widely viewed as two of the most trusted broadcasters in the world. But what earns and maintains that trust in a world of rising misinformation and media fragmentation?

In part large, NHK’s trust is grounded in its ability to tackle the rise in misinformation across social media channels. Showing me around the newsroom, Hideki explained that NHK’s Social Listening Team, launched in 2013, has become a key part of the broadcaster’s efforts to tackle misinformation. Using AI-driven tools to monitor online conversations across platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, the Social Listening Team can flag emerging narratives before they gain traction, particularly during events like natural disasters. The Social Listening Team can also use their analysis of social media to inform the news. Hideki explained:

“Once the team has checked a report online and believes there is ample information to support its veracity, this will then be passed on to the reporters on the news floor.” 

The other source of NHK’s trust? Disasters. Since 1995, Hideki explained, the country has been in a period of seismic activity and disasters have become increasingly more extreme. By law, NHK is legally obliged to broadcast emergency information within seconds after a seismic activity, and becomes a lifeline. To ensure this happens, NHK routinely rehearses its system for crisis coverage:

 “Every night in the news room, we will do drills to simulate what we would need to do as reporters if a disaster struck.”

Chaos, then, is paradoxically the key to the organisation’s strategic importance. 

Scientific journalism has its own formula for success 

When asked about the most challenging aspects of communicating scientific stories to a wide general audience in Japan, Hideki unsurprisingly stated that the need to simplify a very complex subject matter presents issues. 

To counter this, Hideki explained, a combination of drama and documentary has proven to be very effective. He cited the example of a drama he had produced on the pandemic; the scientific complexities had been dramatised first to engage the audience, and the message behind the drama then reinforced in a documentary. 

Broadcasting around the world faces similar challenges.

Discussing the challenges facing NHK more broadly with Hideki, I was struck by how similar they were to those faced by our own broadcasters in the UK.

An aging audience, for instance, was cited as a key issue. Just as in the UK, new services like TikTok are becoming increasingly popular with younger audiences, and NHK achieved only 4% penetration through its streaming service in 2023, according to Statista. Indeed, whilst NHK World-Japan, analagous to the BBC World Service, has 3.23m subscribers on YouTube, this falls short of YouTube’s huge dominance in Japan. 

A strong legacy brand, then, no longer guarantees relevance among younger audiences. When I asked whether NHK might consider collaborations with influencers, as Finland’s Yle has done successfully, Hideki suggested the idea might not resonate with NHK’s traditionally conservative viewership. In some areas, the demographic is so mature that experimentation risks alienating the core audience.

On the other hand, NHK is able to adapt quickly to the changing media landscape in certain areas. The speed of production has increased in recognition of the fact that this is now a key success factor for broadcasters competing with streamers like Netflix. Short reels, for instance, are now starting to be used more by NHK, though it should be noted that they are not hugely popular in Japan, according to Reuters.

NHK also introduced an AI newsreader back in 2018, called “News Yomiko”. According to Reuters, several commercial broadcasters have now copied this, hoping to cut production costs.

However, cuts to NHK’s budget and its new remit have both hampered further efforts by NHK to revolutionise its digital offering. In 2023, the broadcasting act in Japan was reviewed and NHK was forced to reduce its “reviewing fee” by 10%; in other words, 14% of its annual budget had disappeared. At the same time, NHK’s remit was amended to reclassify internet services as “essential” instead of “complementary”.

What this means is that NHK must now prioritise streaming and on-demand services, but with less resources. This mismatch between responsibility and funding risks hampering NHK’s ability to innovate digitally, just as global platforms like Netflix and YouTube continue to set the pace for audience engagement and delivery.

The offerings of organisations like NHK will need to adapt in the future. 

In the future, Hideki believes, broadcasting will remain vital. However, there are concerns that organisations like NHK may shrink, due to the reduced budget.

To thrive in the future, Hideki hopes, the broadcasting act gives NHK a new remit for online-first content.