- Kato Hidetoshi's Data Base -
TELEVISION IN JAPAN
Publication Date: Draft submitted to Oxford University Press. To be published in 1994
Kenjiro Takayanagi, aptly called as the " father of television", was born in 1899 in a small village community 250 kilometers west of Tokyo. When he was 10, he happened to observe a demonstration of Morse code transmission by Japanese Imperial Navy officers in his primary school classroom. Few years later, he learned the name of David Sarnoff, the wireless engineer who received tragic signal from the Titanic. These experiences impressed and moved young Takayanagi, and he decided to study electronics signal transmission when he was admitted to Tokyo Polytechnic.
As a student and a part-time teacher, he was keen to absorb recent technical information from abroad through scientific journals of Europe and the United States. In 1920, he learned that the first "radio station" was established in Pittsburgh,U.S.A., and that this new invention was attracting popular audience. He envisioned that the age of radio would come to Japan in near future. However, being a future minded engineer, he was imaginative enough to speculate what would be the means of communication after radio, rather than following radio engineering. One of these days, an inspiration came from French cartoon magazine he picked up in a bookstore where fantasy of television was illustrated. Now that voice transmission is possible by radio, there is no reason why pictures cannot be sent from one place to another by similar electronic devices.
He already knew that possibility of "television" was explored in Germany and France in late 19th century and that Graham Bell himself was fascinated by the idea of visual transmission after he invented telephone in 1876. These technical history encouraged him to work on television engineering. With these background, as soon as he was appointed as a young assistant professor at Hamamatsu Polytechnic in 1924, he had no hesitation to propose the research and development of television as his subject to the President of the school, by the name of Sokichi Sekiguchi. Sekiguchi was surprised and puzzled by his proposal, but few minutes later, he asked Takayanagi "How much money do you need ?". Takayanagi answered " 3000 Yen per year, and I need ten years for my research". At that time his monthly salary was some 40 Yen, and the amount of research money he proposed was extraordinary, but after listening to Takayanagi's idea, the President said " All right. I will visit Ministry of Education to get your research fund. You may start your television project now" This was the historical moment which marked the beginning of Japanese television.
Takayanagi studied many experiments abroad carefully to discover that, for instance, television engineering employing mechanical devices with scanning disc had been in progress in United Kingdom by Baird early in 1920s. Needless to say, Baird developed "televisor" which was practically used in London from 1929 to 1935. He also studied the state of art in Austria, Germany, and the United States. He was very much impressed by these research and development, but at the same time, he found that mechanical scanner had its technical limitation in terms of speed and density in the transmission of pictures, and he thought about the possibility of utilization of Braun tube for television. The tube, developed by Braun in 1897, was used for physical measurement, and Takayanagi's idea was to apply cathode ray generated in the tube for visual transmission. In other words, he decided to apply electronic approach instead of mechanical one. He was already encouraged by a paper titled " Wireless World" by Cambel Swinton in 1911 which predicted the possibilities of electronic television, though his idea was not theoretically and practically immature.
A year has passed, and his first Braun tube television receiver was made in his laboratory, and experiment was successful. A small spot on the screen moved freely by his manipulation, and with this simple experiment, conducted in October 1925, he was confident that the tube is promising for further development of television. For camera, he had to depend on mechanical equipment, but after another year, on December 25, 1926, to be exact, Takayanagi succeeded in sending a written letter "I" electronically. However, he did not apply for patent right mainly because he was honest enough not to do so until the final product is materialized and partly he was too poor to prepare international patent application form and money. Indeed, in the United States, V.K. Zworykin of RCA already obtained television patent called " Iconoscope" in 1923 as an idea not as a product.
At any rate, Takayanagi and his team continued their research and experiment, and, in May, 1930, Emperor visited his laboratory to observe his invention. By this time, his television could transmit more complex letters as well as human face vaguely. With the success of experiment in front of Imperial family, Takayanagi's invention was officially encouraged by the government, and he was given a small independent research institute for the development of television with a dozen of staff and ample budget.
In 1934, Takayanagi had an opportunity to visit the United States to meet with Zworykin. Both scientists knew each other through respective research papers, and they congratulated parallel research and invention. As far as the improvement of Braun tube, Takayanagi's method preceded that of Zworykin, and Zworykin's patent application to Japan was suspended by Japanese patent office.
By happy coincidence, 1925 was a vintage year in telecommunication-related scientif- ic/technological development in Japan in the sense that another internationally recognized invention came into the stage. For the transmission of wireless signals, highly sophisticated antennas are indispensable, and Hidetsugu Yagi of Tohoku Imperial University succeeded in the development of antenna which can receive very high frequency (VHF) and ultra high frequency (UHF) signals with wavelength 45 centimeters, frequency 667 MHz. The invention, like many others, was the product of an unexpected happening in Yagi's laboratory in 1924, and after a year(1925), Yagi and his team succeeded to develop directional antenna for microwave. His research continued to stabilize and to assure high-performance.
In 1927, Yagi participated annual conference of International Radio Engineering held in New York to read his paper. The reaction from the audience was immense, and immediately after his presentation, John Delliger, who then was working for American government admitted that the occasion was " Yagi shock day", and he asked Yagi if American aviation agency could be permitted to utilize the invention in order to make air traffic control safer and easier. He was approached by many executives of electric and electronic industry for patent negotiation, too. Yagi was generous enough to respond to these requests positively. The prototype of ordinary television antennas which can be found throughout the world today is Yagi antenna. Takayanagi's innovative use of Braun tube combined with Yagi antenna was the groundwork for Japanese television engineering, and experimental television station was established by NHK ( Nippon Hoso Kyokai, or Japan Public Broadcasting Co.)in 1937, which succeeded first television transmission in Tokyo on May 13,1937. The first television receivers, with commer- cial market in mind, were also assembled by Toshiba and NEC in the same year. On April 13, 1940, the first television drama was broadcast by NHK. At that time, Japanese government was ready to invite world Olympic game in Tokyo in 1945, and it was planned that this international big event would be telecast for the first time in history. Takayanagi was appointed as the chief engineer of this project.
But it was unfortunate era in Japanese history. On the one hand, economic recession which resulted worldwide depression in 1929 made both public and private investment in telecommu- nication extremely difficult, and on the other, Japanese militarists dominated nation's government. Needless to say World War II started in 1941, and the Olympic game had to be canceled. Both Takayanagi and Yagi were mobilized by Japanese Imperial Army and Navy to conduct research and development of radar and other military related equipments and devices. And consequently,technical and practical advancement of Japanese television had to be post- poned until 1945, when Japan surrendered to the Allies.
Ironically, British and Americans were much more enthusiastic to apply Yagi's directional antenna, and during the world war II, Japanese military was surprised to find a sophisticated radar used by British Army in Singapore in 1940 when both parties fought a war. American Navy used radar named "YAGI array" to detect and attack Japanese warships in the Pacific. Of course, American sailors did not know what "YAGI" meant.
As introduced in above paragraphs, television engineering was almost mature in Japan in 1930s, and Japanese public knew what television was. It is no wonder that Japanese broadcasters turned their attention to television's revival immediately after the war. For them, the progress of television was simply a matter of interruption by the war from 1940 to 1945.
However, social situation of Japan in 1945 was miserable. Most of the people lost their home and job, food was scarce, transportation and other social infrastructure was totally destroyed, incredible inflation was going on, and altogether, Japan and its people were extremely poor. Government budget had to go to save starving public. Nobody at that time could have even dreamt of television. Or they did not have time to think such luxury. Several years were needed for basic economic reconstruction, and it was 1953 when Japanese television revived and revitalized.
The first television broadcaster after the war was NHK which had such a long and solid technological tradition. On February 1, 1953, NHK started its television broadcast, followed by Nippon Television (NTV), a commercial station which inaugurated its broadcasting on August 28 of the same year. The number of television receivers at that time, however, was only 866, and moreover, the area covered by both stations was limited only in Tokyo and its vicinity. Fundamental problem was, naturally, the financing of television as business. As a matter of fact, for Japanese household in these days, television set was far beyond their purchasing power. According to many sources, the price of a set imported from the United States was 250,000 Yen or the equivalent of annual salary of urban middle class white collar workers. As chart 1 shows, the ownership of these first 866 sets was extremely limited, and peculiar. As far as NHK was concerned, however, there was good reason and enough budget to start television. Being a public station financed by subscription fee by the people, it was necessary and justifiable for NHK to invest initial capital which could persuade both government and the audience. But problem was not easy for commercial stations because they had to have enough audience in order to secure necessary income from sponsors. With less than 1,000 receivers how a new television station could persuade sponsors to pay huge amount of money for adver- tisement? However, Matsutaro Syoriki, a veteran journalist who then was the president of the Yomiuri newspaper, was confident that the new station can be a success, and he did not hesitate to apply for a new television station license to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. His believed that television would be most promising new medium of mass communication and that, for the time being, millions of people would watch with enthusiasm TV screen if big television sets were placed at major street corners. As the president of NTV, a company which was almost unknown at that time, he ordered more than a dozen of big television receivers made in the United States, and put them busy street corners, in parks, major railroad stations, and other places where people gathered. They were nick named as " street television", and as Syoriki predicted, millions of people, in literal sense of the term, were attracted by this new mass medium on the street. Newspaper dated October 27, 1953 described unbelievable scene around a street television as follows:
" More than 20,000 people gathered in front of a street television to watch live broadcast of boxing title match of Sirai vs Allen. Because of the crowd, tram cars had to make long stop. Automobiles could not move at all. Taxi drivers left their cars on the street to watch the match. Several people who were on trees nearby to get better view fell down and injured. In a neighborhood residence, the second floor could not hold full house guests and 20 people dropped and hurt"
At that time, Japanese electronic industry, in spite of great technological heritage from 1920s, was not mature, and most of television sets were imported from the United States. Japanese manufacturers such as Panasonic, Toshiba, made their television sets already, but the price tag was beyond purchasing power of ordinary people. As a matter of fact, 14 inch television set was sold at 180,000 Yen whereas average white collar worker's monthly income was 15,000 Yen. Therefore, only extremely rich families could afford to buy this new gadget as a novelty item. However, as suggested in Chart 1, certain merchants were clever enough to purchase the expensive machine to attract customers. It started in coffee shops, restaurants, bars and barber shops. Whenever popular programs, especially sports programs, were broadcast, the owners of these establishments asked surcharge to the customers, and the customers were still willing to pay extra money to watch their favorite programs. As mentioned before, there were only 866 sets to begin with, and the increase of receivers were very slow. In March 1954, the number of TV sets was recorded as mere 16,000, and most of them were found in these commercial establishments rather than private homes.
However, the diffusion of television among Japanese homes showed dramatic boost in late 1950s. The decisive factor was that electronic manufacturers finally completed their installment of production line and succeeded in mass production of television sets. In 1958, a 14 inch black and white set was sold at the price of 60,000 Yen, only one third of 1953. By that time, monthly salary of average Japanese reached 25,000 Yen, and the price was already within the reach of ordinary citizen. Parents did not want to let their children to go to their neighbors who already owned television. Moreover, other than NHK and NTV, by that time, people were able to have access to 6 commercial stations and one educational channel so that television was recognized as the most popular and attractive means of home entertainment. Since electronic technology was in progress and per capita income of Japanese people was growing from late 1950s through 1960s, the time was mature to make television as a new mass media for Japanese people.
A happy and exciting event which dramatically contributed to increase the number of receivers came towards the end of 1950s when Royal wedding of Prince Akihito and Michiko Shoda took place. The wedding was a great national event from various reasons. In the first place, it was a prelude for new Japan after the unfortunate war to which, to a certain degree, Emperor Hirohito was responsible. People were looking forward to see the growth of next generation. In the second place, this marriage was revolutionary in the history of Imperial family in the sense that it was marriage by love, not by arrangement. Akihito met with Michiko at tennis court in summer resort, and that democratic and romantic story was welcomed by general public.
The Royal wedding had ample lead time from its first official announcement of November 1958 to the event actually came on April 10, 1959. Sony, Panasonic, and other companies made well though out campaign saying "Let's watch wedding parade by television!" Indeed, the event was quite appropriate to establish television as a strong national media. Horse-pulled Imperial carriage , thousands of people with national flag in hands, Royal guards in brilliant uniform , and above all, the Royal couple in ceremonial costume, were expected to be a spectacular program. Television stations announced that the whole parade would be broadcast, live, on the spot. Indeed, it was a noble and picturesque program which attracted general public.
As a matter of fact, only very few people in metropolitan Tokyo area could see only a part of the parade on the scene, and absolute majority had to, and wanted to, see the parade through television. Persuaded and encouraged by the advertisements of manufacturers, people rushed to electric retail shops. And within a year, two million television sets were sold, mainly by the people who did not want to miss this great event. For broadcasters, too, the wedding parade was good chance to demonstrate their technology and power. Close to 2,000 producers, directors, camera operator, and all technical crew were mobilized, and altogether 108 television cameras were waiting for the parade, which continued for 50 minutes, along 8.9 kilometers' route . It is estimated that 150 thousands people watched and enjoyed the broadcast.
The "Royal fever", so to apeak, infected electronic manufacturers, too. Or, they were the pathogen of the fever, because these manufacturers appealed to the people that television would promise to bring this event to the living room of each household from the best angles, which even those who were on the spot could not see.
"Royal fever" was like a new influenza which, in result, brought a new outlook to Japan. Television watching became a basic part of everyday habit of Japanese people, along with having meals,washing teeth, and taking bath. As a matter of fact,by bibliographical recollection, in 1959, the present author published a book tilled "age of Television" (Terebi Jidai) in which he pointed out the changes in Japanese society and peoples' life style brought by the new medium of mass communication. Age of television was already there. People could not escape from it. They could not go back to the past again.
If " Royal fever" was influenza type A, another new type B influenza was Tokyo Olympic. Only a month after Royal wedding parade, on May 26 1959 to be exact, IOC( International Olympic Commission) decided to hold Olympic game in Tokyo in 1964. As mentioned earlier, Japan was expected to be the host country of the Olympic in 1945 which had to be canceled, at least postponed, because of the world war II. And the decision of IOC gave extraordinary excitement to Japan and its people. It was thought to be a token of recognition of Japan's independence by international community. Therefore, it was not surprising that not only Tokyo metropolitan government but also Central government of Japan made special budgetary arrange- ments for the preparation of this big international sports event. New constructions and renovations of buildings, road, highways, were seen everywhere in high pitch. Anticipating hundreds of thousands of visitors from abroad, new hotels were built, and new express railroad which is known as "bullet train" system also came into reality. It is not mach exaggeration to say that the Olympic game was one of the major stimulus for the economic reconstruction in post war Japan. Mass media brought Olympic-related news and stories almost every day, and without exception, media preached to the public how significant the international event would be in the interest of, even a matter of pride of, Japan and Japanese people.
Like in the case of "Royal fever", "Olympic fever" also had long incubation period. From IOC's announcement in Munich in 1959 to the actual event in the fall of 1964 , there were five years lead time which made all construction works possible. And in the expectation of another extraordinary attraction of the event, manufacturers were aggressive in the sales promotion of television sets to those who were not infected by influenza yet. And they did not hesitate to put advertisement which says " We promise you the best seat to watch Olympic games", and the public responded to this appeal honestly. On the one hand, by that time, people had enough money for the purchase of television set, and on the other, the forthcoming event was a good justification to buy the sets.
Moreover, this time, manufacturers were interested in selling of color television along with traditional black and white sets. Engineers were confident that their products were stable and reliable, and as chart 3 shows, mid-1960s was the starting point of amazing increase of production of color television. Also, the correlation of retail price of television sets and monthly income revealed that 1963 was the time when the price of a black and white set matched exactly a month's income, and if a person saved three months' salary, he could afford a color television (see chart 4) Also, for those who bought the first black and white television in early 1950s, it was a good time to replace it by color. At the same time, television stations, both NHK and commercial, gradually switched their broadcast from black and white to color. As the result, Japan entered into the age of color television in late 1960s.
At this new stage of television's growth, those who were hesitant to invest money for television, in the thought that it was simply childish entertainment, finally decided to buy televi- sion sets. Such purchasing power and enthusiasm was beyond the expectation of the manufactur ers. Factory workers at Panasonic, Sony, and many others were busy to assemble sets 24 hours a day, everyday as the demand exceeded supply. Mass consumption of television, from obvious reasons, encouraged manufactures to set up more sophisticated mass production line which eventually reduced the price of sets. The quality control was satisfactory by this time, and the retail price was competitive.
The Olympic game, with participation of 5,586 athletes representing 94 countries, the biggest in scale in its history, was held in Tokyo from October 10 through 24, 1964. The inauguration ceremony was watched by 65 million people in Japan, or 84.7% of the nation's population. After this great event, Japanese television came to real maturity. Manufacturers and distributors were confident about the quality of their products, and they were ready to export television sets abroad. As chart 3 already indicated, Japanese television (black and white) sets were exported in 1962, and the first export of color television was made in 1966. Needless to say, that was the prelude for Japanese expansion of electronic industry throughout the world.
One of the most remarkable characteristics of purchasing pattern of the period mentioned so far was that people in rural area were eager to have television. Thanks to agrarian reform, coupled with protective price of rice, farmers were not miserable peasants anymore. Moreover, they did not have much entertainments which "city folks" enjoyed. After their hard working days, especially at chilly nights during the winter, television provided them with ideal pastime. Indeed, in late 1950s, a rural sociologist who conducted survey research in villages were shocked to discover that many farmers houses were equipped with brand new television sets. In other words, television succeeded to bridge traditional gap between urban and rural population in the country.
The most remarkable phenomena was, for better or worse, the vanishing of local dialects. Though Japan seems to be a tiny island country, each region had its dialect with unique accents and vocabularies. As a matter of fact, it has been said that people from southernmost islands would face with difficulty in communicating with the people from northern prefectures. But with overwhelming penetration of television, Tokyo dialect spiced by broadcasters' peculiar accent , which often called "NHK dialect", became standard language, especially among younger generation. Contrasting to radio, television could bring moves of lips and gestures to the audience, and its linguistic "equalizing effect" was tremendous.
Another social effect was what critics called the rise of " family togetherness", because whole family became to be habituated to sit together in front of the "tube" every evening to watch their favorite programs. And responding to this new habit, television broadcasters were conscious enough to produce a new genre of programs usually labeled as "home drama" which dealt with various situations and problems with which most of Japanese families were likely to face. Some of these "home dramas" were serious, while other were comical.
"Home drams" also played important role in giving new ideas to the life style to the masses of people. For instance, the furnishing of new kitchen in urban middle class as appeared on TV screen was often perceived as a model of new way of living, and such scenes encouraged many families to renovate their kitchen. The dress, hairdo, and the way a housewife speak and behave in the drama also were suggestive for ordinary viewers, and sometimes real homes imitated the homes in dramas. In other words, television was psychologically very "close" to the audience, and "home drama" was a device to respond to the desire of the audience who inclined to observe the people who appear on the screen as quasi-neighbors, so to speak. unlike movie stars whom people looked up as "stars", with whom ordinary people never dared to compare themselves, the heroes and heroines on television screen were, and had to be, taken as common people who could be taken as neighbors and friends who visited living room of private homes frequently and casually.
In order to emphasize such psychological proximity, television broadcasters paid keen interest in " audience participation programs " such as quiz, singing contest, public opinion hearing on the street, and many others. The production technique of this kind of program were suggested by American broadcasters since the days of radio, and more than that, audience participation programs in Japan often contributed as the means of recruitment of new talents for television. A good example is singing contest of NHK which has been broadcast since the day of the birth of television. It is one of the most highly rated favorite program which are broadcast every Sunday noon for 45 minutes, and from hundreds of amateur singers who come to the stage, many were identified as semi professionals, and eventually some of these singers became professional.
In other words, certain audience participation programs turned out to be the place of audition, too. That made television psychologically closer and closer. The world of television, as far as Japan is concerned, seems to have been dominated by " happy amateurism" rather than sophis- ticated professionalism which was essential in traditional performing arts, such as theater and motion pictures. As a matter of fact, from its beginning, such professions as "producer" "director" were not "professionals" at all. Some were recruited from motion picture productions, but many of them were from newspaper journalism or even freshman straight from colleges and universities. The way they plan and execute programming and broadcasting was fundamentally amateurish, and this characteristic still remain in today's Japan.
The rise of television brought many other effects to Japanese society. Among other things, it cannot be neglected that programs made in foreign countries, notably in America, came to each household through television. The first imported American program to Japan was "Superman" series which started its broadcast in 1956 followed by "I love Lucy" in 1957. Though the ratio of imported programs were less than 5%, many Japanese were attracted by these American entertainment programs because their stories were well thought out and production technique was fresh. At the same time, Japanese public was very eager to absorb "American way of life" as the ideal. Naturally, these programs had to be either dubbed or subtitled, but as for subtitled version, certain segment of the audience thought that these programs could be good opportu- nities to learn conversational English.
In that sense, imported programs, especially those made in U.S.A., contributed to "inter- nationalization" or at least "Americanization" of Japanese popular culture. This experience was revolutionary in the sense that " America " began to visit each Japanese home without introduction. Japanese people at that time welcomed to see foreigners on TV screen as new neighbors and friends without much hesitation. Not only audience, but also broadcasters were very eager to watch American programs because they could learn a lot from these programs in terms of production technique. Television in Japan from its beginning in 1953 was regarded as primarily entertainment media, which included sports, drama, quiz, and so forth. Of course, it was a new and comprehensive news media, and like in the case of BBC, 9:00 p.m NHK news has established its authenticity and reliability. But essential part of television was naturally entertainment. Especially children were often absorbed by entertainment programs of television, and parents and educators were worried about bad influence of television in children's lives. It was not coincidental that several Japanese scholars started their survey research on this particular subject as early as in late 1950s when Hilda Himmerweit in U.K. and Wilber Schramm conducted similar research in respective countries. Critics said that it is wonderful to have television set in each home because it delivered the "world" to each and every home, but they also expressed their worry about possible negative effect of television not only upon children but also people at large.
The most critical comment about television was made by Soichi Ohya, an influential popular writer and columnist. In his essay of 1958, in the first place, he pointed out that the habit of television watching had "peanuts effect". He said, once you have a bowl full of peanuts on the table, you automatically and incessantly pick up peanuts to your mouth, even without tasting. It is an " endless nonsense affair ", he said. And like peanuts eating, once you switch on your television, you won't be able to turn it off. In another essay in which he teased a quiz program, and in conclusion, he strongly argued that television is nothing more than the new means to create " 100 million idiots ", implying that whole population of Japan would be unintelligent, funny, illiterate, and vulgar fool as the result of continuous television watching. The series of his essays on television appeared in major newspapers and magazines , and the phrase "100 million idiots" was popularly quoted by those who attacked television.
Actually, as television stations and broadcasting hours increased, not only the number of viewers but also viewing hours have increased at incredible speed. According to interesting survey research conducted by NHK Research Institute, it was revealed that, in average, a Japanese spent 3 hours and 11 minutes a day for television watching in 1960, 3 hours and 26 minutes in 1975. In the case of children between 10 and 15, their viewing hour was identified as close to 4 hours a day. The figure was astonishing for parents and teachers of Japan where reading had been strongly encouraged to school children before the arrival of television. Therefore, many parents restricted watching hours to the maximum of 1 hour or less to their children, on the ground that television would sacrifice the time for reading and writing, which were essential component of education. Such efforts, however, were not successful in most cases. The parents and educators thought that Ohya's " 100 million idiot" theory might be true and that next generation could turn out to be a group of illiterate idiots, and they blamed television broadcasters for their programming which was full of nonsense, sex, and violence.
In addition, because of relatively heavy viewing habit, it was proven that Japanese people shortened their sleeping hours. According to a survey conducted by NHK, average sleeping hour in 1970 was 7 hours and 57 minutes, but in 1990, people slept 7 hours and 39 minutes. As a matter of fact, the survey also pointed out that one third of Japanese confessed that they needed more sleep.
Against these negative view, another group of scholars and critics thought that this new medium could be used for educational purpose, and they had good reasons to stress these potentials.
In the first place, the use of radio broadcasting for school education was inaugurated as early as 1931 under the initiative of NHK, and there were thousands of school teachers who were already knew the effectiveness of broadcasting in classroom instruction. They were used to utilize " school hours ", regularly broadcast by NHK radio channel 2, as their teaching aid. It is natural that these school teachers became keenly interested in the use of television in schools, and they knew that television would be much better means for education in comparison with radio. For instance, in the instruction of physics, ordinary elementary or secondary schools did not have equipments by which teachers demonstrate what "vacuum" was. But on television, delicate experiments on vacuum, air pressure, high voltage, and many other subjects related to natural science can be introduced to children. In the instruction of social studies, too, pupils could be easily exposed to such visual materials as archeological excavation, the lives of peoples in the world, and variety of educational pictures which schools could not provide. Moreover, in these instructions, eminent scholars and experts can speak to the children. These educators welcomed the arrival of the age of television from obvious reasons. In the second place, more liberal and sometimes radical educators thought that traditional textbook-based education would not be sufficient in the years to come, and that new audio- visual literacy had to be given to the children so that future generation would be capable of understanding both media and complement each other. Ministry of Post and Telecommunication also have shown its great concern on this matter, and from the beginning of television in 1953, the Ministry gave license to NHK another channel of which mission was to deliver educational programs only. Therefore, thanks to Japanese public broadcasting system, at least one channel was secured for education, not only for schools but also for adult education. Moreover, the Ministry gave priorities to those commercial broadcasters who applied for "semi-educational" stations of which basic condition was to devote at least one- third of broadcasting hours of educational programs. This policy was admirable by nature, but within several years of practice, "semi-educational" broadcasters discovered that commercial sponsors were not willing to pay for educational programs, and as the result,the category of "semi-educational" stations was substantially ceased to exist before 1970.
Regardless of categories of programs and programming, it should be added here that the most devoted television viewers in Japan are older people, over 60 in particular. According a survey of NHK Research Institute, a man in his 60s watch television 3 hours and 52 minutes, in his 70s 4 hours and 51 minutes in average. As for female population, a women in her 60s spend 4 hours and 27 minutes, 70s 4 hours and 49 minutes. In other words, contrasting to common assumption, real "heavy viewers" in Japan are older people rather than young children. These elderly retired people who do not drive out for holidays nor go to theaters found their best pastime in television at home. This fact implies that television today is serving for social welfare in aging society like Japan.
The implication of Ohya's "100 million idiot" theory was that people would substitute their reading habit by television, but the most immediate impact came to motion picture industry from obvious reasons. Like in other countries, movie used to be one of the most popular entertainment in Japan, and thousands of movie theaters throughout the country attracted million of people every year. However, as chart shows, the number of movie goes declined drastically from the middle of 1960s, the time when "Olympic fever" infected most of Japanese. Motion picture companies fought a desperate war against television by producing spectacular movies, but movies could not attract audience any more, except for few works by Akira Kurosawa and other eminent directors.
Indeed, one point in 1958, Japanese movie companies agreed not to offer their properties to television broadcasters, but they discovered that they could not beat television. And finally, they surrendered to television by changing themselves as subcontractors for television stations. As a matter of fact, Toei, Toho, Syochiku, and other major motion picture companies established video production companies as their subsidiaries to respond to the demands from television sta- tions.
Producers who used to make two hour long serious movies once or twice a year were forced to make exactly 45 minutes television program every week, under severe budgetary constraints. Many movies were sold to television stations, but they had to be interrupted by commercials and often be edited for the interest of stations and sponsors who were extremely time conscious. For instance, a movie which run 2 hours and 37 minutes was cut and edited to meet with 90 minutes time frame. Thus, not only movie theaters but also motion picture companies with their traditional spirit disappeared.
The second victim of television was radio. Before the age of television, radio had been the most attractive media for the majority of people. According to many survey research, Japanese people used to listen to radio 3 hours in 1950. But the figure declined 90 minutes in 1960, then 30 minutes in 1965. The only listeners of radio, a critic pointed out, were drivers, and that observation might have been correct, because most of taxi drivers in Japan are tuning in to radio, if not listening to. Another group of listeners were thought to be housewives who tuned to radio while doing house cleaning, ironing, cooking, and so forth. But with the diffusion of taped music, and more recently compact disc, radio is loosing its audience very rapidly.
As for newspapers, an interesting change happened. As already mentioned, it was significant that those who were interested in the establishment of commercial television were newspaper companies, as represented by Mr.Syoriki of the Yomiuri. Indeed, it was newspaper business people who felt both fear and hope in television. They feared because television might take the place of newspaper journalism since the new medium could report news much faster with much stronger impact to the audience. They hoped because to have television stations as sister organizations might make both media complementary and stronger. Therefore, after the Yomiuri, the biggest newspaper in Japan, the Asahi, the Mainichi, and other major newspapers applied for license of television stations, and these applications were eventually accepted. As the result, after 1960, what may be called "information conglomerate" appeared in Japanese social history. In other words, newspaper publishers were eager to subsidize and to affiliate broad- casting stations so that oriented pages, radio, and television can enjoy their happy coexistence. A newspaper propagated programs of television programs of its affiliated station, and television stations relied on its affiliated newspaper for news and commentaries. Not only Tokyo based big press with nationwide circulation, but also local papers followed the same pattern so that broadcasting "network" in Japan took unique form in the sense that it linked information industries including press, radio, and television. It is not strange, in this connection, that newspaper columnists appear as commentators in late evening television news. Management also rotated within each information conglomerate. For instance, it is a common practice in Japan to see a vice president of a newspaper appointed as the president of affiliated television station and visa versa. NHK, or public broadcaster is a special legal body designated by law, and the president of this huge network is appointed by Prime Minister. Quite opposite to certain misunderstanding in foreign countries,it is not owned by the government, and NHK is totally financed by subscription fee paid by each and every citizen of Japan, and its mission is to broadcast decent and neutral news, entertainment, and educational programs for the welfare of Japanese public. Their operation is totally autonomous. Since NHK was the only broadcaster in Japan since 1925, they had great deal of experiences in television, too. Actually, Takayanagi, the inventor back in 1920s, himself worked as a technical staff of NHK before the war, and as mentioned earlier, it was NHK which initiated the first television station in 1937. Their technology as well as well balanced programming was the model for commercial broadcasters who did not know what television was and how to run a station. Therefore, whenever a new commercial station was established, producers and technical experts were recruited from NHK. For better or worse, Japanese television followed the way paved by NHK. And NHK and commercial broadcasters began to keep strange relationship. On the one hand, commercial stations controlled themselves because of NHK, and on the other hand, NHK became very conscious of competition with commercial stations which offered programs which had much stronger popular appeal.
As mentioned earlier, both government and Japanese public showed remarkable interest in educational use of television, and one of the outcome was the establishment of " University of the Air " in 1978, a product of joint efforts of Ministry of Education and Ministry of Post and telecommunications. In short, the university is a new type of open university with full use of broadcasting. It has its own station both television and FM radio, and they broadcast university lectures 18 hours a day throughout the year. As of 1993, some 45,000 people registered as regular students and it is estimated that about a million citizens are listening and/or watching the programs offered by the university for free. In this case again, the university had to ask for technical assistance to NHK.
As early as 1968, NHK began its experimental direct satellite broadcasting. NHK has been given the mission to deliver messages to "every corner of the nation", and the use of broadcasting satellite (BS) seemed to be perfect means of communication in a mountainous island country like Japan. Unlike microwave, BS can give signal straight to homes equipped with small dish antenna. Moreover, audio-visual quality sent by BS is much better than conventional microwave broadcasting. It was, again, a novelty item in the beginning, but in 1980s, two
channels operated by NHK succeeded to attract millions of new audience. As of early 1993, there are 6 million households which have BS tuner in Japan. In 1991, a commercial BS station called Japan Satellite Broadcasting Co.(JSB) started its business. It is a "Pay TV" and a sub- scriber should pay 27,000 Yen for the rental of decoder and 3,000 Yen monthly subscription fee. Since JSB transmit latest movies, both domestic and foreign, without interruption, it appealed to urban middle class, and early in 1993, 1.2 million homes are watching JSB.
As the result of telecommunication technologies coupled with rising standard of living, television is anywhere in Japan since the beginning of 1980s, and even in the most remote area, people can receive at least 2 channels of NHK broadcast ( general and educational) plus at least 3 commercial channels. If wanted, they can enjoy another two NHK BS broadcast along with JSB. Before the end of the century, it is expected that 4 new BS stations will be in operation. In a word, Japanese television already passed its saturation point. Not only that, some 120 cable television stations (CATV) are in existence, and a person who subscribe to a CATV, he can choose out of 30 different channels, which include highly specialized channels such as sports, movies, shopping, and so forth.
At the same time, with the use of satellites, the world of television is getting "internation- alized" every year, and every day. The first experimental use of communication satellite linked with regular broadcasting was conducted between Japan and the United States on November 23, 1963, and Japanese public was looking forward to watch live broadcast from the other side of the Pacific. According its original plan, President John Kennedy was expected to send his message to Japanese audience, but it was exactly the day when he was assassinated in Texas. The expected greeting was replaced by the tragic and shocking news.
Four years after this dramatic experience, worldwide telecast through communication satellite was conducted in the summer of 1967, of which key station was BBC, London. In Japan, NHK participated in this international venture, and London, New York, Sydney, Tokyo, and many other places in the world were linked together. Because of time difference, peoples of some countries had to wake up very early in the morning while others had to sacrifice their working hours, but this experimental link proved that television broadcast in global scale was possible. And since the beginning of 1970s, Japanese television stations positively launched their inter- national linkage. In sports, not only Olympic games but also major sports events, such as tennis, golf, football, which took place anywhere in the world, have been brought for Japanese audience usually live, sometimes pre-recorded because of time difference. Major television stations set up their branch office throughout the world so that any event or accident could be sent to Tokyo simultaneously through communication satellites. Especially in Asian context, under the initiative of Asian Broadcasters Union (ABU), regular news program exchange called Asiavision was inaugurated in 1980? and relayed news from participating countries of east Asia and Southeast Asia are broadcast every evening.
Even not relying on regular television, thanks to telecommunication technologies, if a person is enthusiastic enough to place a dish antenna of 6 meters diameter with delicate rotating device to change its direction, he can catch as many as 20 different international channel including Star TV of Hong Kong, BBC international, and CNN. In other words, television in Japan today is already a part of global network, and nobody in the past even dreamt of such progress. As a matter of fact, in the spring of 1993, NHK took initiative to commemorate and celebrate 40th birthday of television in Japan, and those who lived contemporary history were given good nostalgic opportunity to watch old programs.
Another technological innovation which came to Japanese television is the development of High Definition Television (HDT), which is commonly called "Hi-vision" As known by experts, the essential part of this technology is that engineers succeeded to make horizontal solution 1125, against 525 of conventional television. HDT is already being broadcast 5 hours a day through BS channel, and the quality of picture as well as sound is impressive. As of 1993, however, HDT is still in its experimental stage. On the one hand, production cost is almost double of "traditional" television, and on the other, HDT receivers are very expensive. Above all, broadcasting hour is limited. Futurists predict that it will take another decade or two until HDT can come to popular use.
Aside from technological innovation of broadcasting, attention should be paid to the diffusion of video tape recorder (VTR) by which people can record programs on tape. The production of VTR began in the middle of 1960s, but at that time, the machine was for broadcasters who needed them to meet with professional purpose. After 1975, however, electronic manufacturers discovered that VTR for home use would be a great market, and in 1975 alone, they sold 120,000 VTR, and within 15 years, 13,000,000 VTR were produced and distributed. The figure is amazing in the sense that more than 60% of Japanese household now have VTR. Contrasting to broadcast, which force the audience to wait for certain time programmed by broadcasters, people can watch their favorite programs by the use of VTR.
This new machine can record, and reproduce broadcast programs, and at the same time, people can play video tapes commercially sold at record shops. Or they may rent favorite video tapes at rental shops. As chart ? shows, the number of video rental shops increased remarkably from 1985 to 1990, and millions of Japanese today get tapes rented for 400 Yen per day, almost nominal price. In average, a video rental shop has 2,500 tapes in stock with 4,000 regular customers. It is reported that in the year 1991 alone, rental shops throughout Japan earned 40 billion Yen in total out of their rental video business. This amount is slightly less than annual government budget to run its 95 national universities?
The future of television is not predictable. As suggested already, such "package" media as compact disc, audio and visual tapes, and laser disc, are taking a part of place which has been monopolized by broadcasting. Communication satellite, which can be used as a means of interactive communication, may be a substitute of television broadcasting depending on the purpose and interest of users. Sophisticated computer system may be interwoven with broadcasting and packages. Also, compact video camera, which sold 10 million already, may make at least certain segment of people more "expressive" rather than "receptive"
Kenjiro Takayanagi, now 94, is still looking forward to see the next stage of television toward 21st century.
Kato Hidetoshi's Data Base
Document ID Number:2622