No Escape From The NHK Man?

[Iraira]

SJ, Cyka, and Greji would all be beating your door down, only to find SDH had already charmed his way in!:p

That's what I was afraid of, but a guy's gotta find ways to knock out the rent.

[Mulboyne]

A new report proposes to extend the NHK licence fee to include households which do not own a TV but do use other devices, such as PCs, to watch live TV broadcasts. The reports are only very brief so it isn't clear whether NHK will have to demonstrate you do watch broadcasts or whether ownership of the device alone would mean a household has to pay.

Source (Japanese)

[matsuki]

A new report proposes to extend the NHK licence fee to include households which do not own a TV but do use other devices, such as PCs, to watch live TV broadcasts. The reports are only very brief so it isn't clear whether NHK will have to demonstrate you do watch broadcasts or whether ownership of the device alone would mean a household has to pay.

Source (Japanese)

Wow, they gonna go after people with 1-seg capable keitais next?

[Mike Oxlong]

Wow, they gonna go after people with 1-seg capable keitais next?

I'm sure they are. They asked me specifically the last time they came with the young gal/young dude playing good cop, bad cop about my cell phone.

[FG Lurker]

Still not going to enter into a contract with these fuckers. Waiting to see them try to sue someone to force them to sign a contract...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

What is it with these bloody NHK collectors?
Considering the complete clusterfuck this cuntry has become up north, surely there are more important problems facing Japan at the moment...like separating your garbage properly and switching your bike light on at night.

[BigInJapan]

...surely there are more important problems facing Japan at the moment...like separating your garbage properly and switching your bike light on at night.

And don't forget about arresting all those foreign pensioners carrying around concealed pen knives with blades over 6cm long.
Japan is safety country (because it has four seasons, and Japanese intestines are longer, as everyone knows...).

[Taro Toporific]

Big whoopie doo...

[INDENT]:domo: NHK to cut monthly TV fee by 120 yen
Japan Times/Kyodo | Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011
NHK said Tuesday its board of governors approved a business plan that includes a cut in its monthly television subscription fee by up to 120 yen from next October.
The viewership fee cut is the first by NHK since 1968...more...[/INDENT]

[Typhoon]

God damn the NHK man.

[Taro Toporific]

Print out this J-factoid to shove in the face* of the NHK man the next time he comes knocking at your door.

*Or to set it on fire & ram it up his ass sideways

Asahi.com/job/news...2013Feb12
...ＮＨＫ職員は約１万５４０人いる。平均年収（２０１１年度）は１１８５万円。一般の会社員らと比べて給与水準が高いことが国会で問題視されていた...
... NHK's 10,540 employees receive an average annual salary of 11.85 million yen ($127,000 USD)...

[Coligny]

DaFuq!

That's sugarmama territory...

[Samurai_Jerk]

DaFuq!

That's sugarmama territory...

Certainly a good income but not enough to be a sugarmama in the first world or overpriced third world Japan.

[Russell]

NHK may charge viewer fees for Internet, smartphone usage

“NHK is going to start charging viewer fees to owners of smartphones, car navigation units, Nintendo DS game units and the like.”

That’s the rumor going around political and broadcast media circles, at any rate.

But is there any truth to it? Shukan Taishu (June 24) wonders.

“There’s a chance that all households with a TV unit will be saddled with an additional NHK fee of 2,450 yen every two months,” says a source in the broadcast industry.

But the magazine points out that it’s the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (i.e., the government) that approves viewer fees. Which essentially means the buck stops with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. While Abe is said to have heated disagreements with NHK in the past, more recently, the two sides have reached a modus vivendi.

The mutual hostility appears to date back to 2005, when NHK’s educational channel broadcast a special documentary on the wartime sex slaves (euphemistically referred to as “comfort women”).

“Just prior to the broadcast, Mr Abe was serving as the deputy-chief cabinet officer,” recalls an LDP Diet member. “He said the program’s contents were ‘too one-sided’ and tried to apply pressure to alter the program. The producer reacted by announcing a press conference at which he wept in front of the media, while protesting government pressure.

“Afterwards Abe remarked that the program was ‘not true’ and the relationship subsequently worsened.”

During his previous tenure as prime minister, at which time he suffered health problems, Abe apparently blamed NHK for negative treatment in the media.

Just after Abe was reelected in December of last year, most of the participants who took part in an NHK panel discussion program called “Tettei Toron” (detailed debate) were critics of Abe and his policies.

As recently as April 8, Abe truculently posted on his Facebook page, “NHK has refrained from reporting on my conference with the president of Mexico, so I am posting it here.” When he subsequently learned that NHK had in fact reported the meeting on its 19:00 news broadcast he posted an apology.

“The Facebook posting did not create much of a stir,” said the previously mentioned broadcast industry source, “But it clearly shows that Abe is oversensitive about NHK in general.”

Meanwhile, as a result of NHK’s reduction in viewer fees from last autumn, the broadcaster’s revenues declined by 1.3 billion yen. The two sides now appear to have announced a cease-fire, and NHK is hoping that in exchange for Abe’s good will it can expect government approval on a new fee structure—a “win-win situation” as Abe likes to call it, according to broadcast journalist Makoto Odagiri.

“From this month, NHK has set up a new ‘Media Planning Office,’” says Makoto Kanazawa, a broadcast critic. “It has shown extraordinary interest in charging fees for Internet usage.”

Imposing such a fee would, needless to say, bring in enormous revenues, but NHK is not satisfied even with that. Not content to stop at personal computers, it is also said to be considering a fee on any device capable of receiving a TV signal—as Article 96 of the broadcast law entitles it to do. In other words, mobile telephones, car navigation systems, and even console type video games.

What’s more, every single unit would be taxed. So a trucking company with 100 vehicles equipped with navigation systems would pay for its office, plus all the trucks in its fleet—101 in total.

Empowered by the laws, NHK will also go after fees from households using cable TV, from which it has not energetically attempted collection up to now.

NHK is also pursuing corporate deadbeats who have neglected to pay. From July 2012 it went to court against the Toyoko Inn and several other business hotel chains, which NHK claims are in arrears for 521 million yen in viewer fees for the TV units in their guest rooms.

From the cozy new relationship between Abe and NHK’s ravenous appetite for money to lavish on its overpaid employees—and abetted by the “spineless” mass media that neglects to report what’s going on—it looks like Japan’s sheeple are being set up for another shearing.

[matsuki]

I'm sure that'll be popular.....

[Coligny]

In other (albeit real) countries the question was wether or not people having TV card or watching Internet broadcast of TV should pay the TV tax...

Now if it's an add-on tax because you can also watch the shift box in your car... They are pushing a bit too far...

[omae mona]

If they do that, there will be a pretty rapid release of new phone models without 1-seg TV tuners (and if not, iPhone sales will go up, relative to Android devices which typically have the tuners). I don't think anybody I know actually uses their keitai's 1-seg tuner, and I am including Japanese people who actually do watch NHK on regular TVs. If they impose a fee, I'm pretty sure the result will be the end of 1-seg usage, even what little there is.

Just found this survey from the Nomura Research Institute. It's much higher than I thought, but the pie chart shows only 14.8% of keitai users actually watch 1-seg 4-5 times a week or more. I bet everybody else would rather lose the 1-seg feature entirely than pay NHK a monthly fee.

Wankers.

[yanpa]

IMHO the smartphone killed 1seg. I remember when I was here in 2008 after an absence of a couple of years, it was easy enough to spot people on the (above-ground) trains using it, now everyone is stabbing away at screens with their fingers, and/or using apuri to watch streaming video.

The only real use I have for it is checking NHK after the more alarming kind of earthquake.

[Coligny]

I
The only real use I have for it is checking NHK after the more alarming kind of earthquake.

Yup, that's pretty much the only remaining use I would see...
I don't know if much people still watch live broadcasts except for meteo or "shit hit the fan" moment. The price of flat screen plus Dvr is now so low... Most people record what they want to see to watch later. Plus watching TV on 1 seg while on the move is more a pita than anything else...
Maybe one seg phone with time shift...

[matsuki]

You guys said it...I still don't understand how this NHK mafia style payment collection can exist in 2013 but TIJ....

[J.A.F.O]

Wow, I was reading through some NHK militia stories in this thread.

I would always use the dumb gaijin line "I don'ta speaka japunesu" and this usually worked but they must had a union meeting about this because one day they sent a militant bastard with a decent grasp of the English language. Well not knowing this I answered the door in person which usually gets me an apology for bothering me and a smile. Well not that day.

This jack boot came with the law translated into English and an attitude. I was kinda impressed actually and told him go ahead. He proceeded to explain how it was the law and went through it line by line with me. When we got to the point where it read (If the resident owns a television then they must pay the tax for the NHK service) At that point I told him "Choto Mate" went back into house to our storage room and picked up a small junked out analog box tube and headed for the door. (all the while the wife is looking at me wide eyed as if to say "what is this crazy gaijin up to now")

Opening the front door wide I presented him with the television "Hai Dozo" He looked at me with shock and started shaking his head like he just took a bad shot of rotgut. "wait wait no...no, what is this?"... duh its a freaking t.v. jack ass. "No wait, I can't take... you can't" You could see his mind was reeling trying to catch up to the shift in dynamics "tsk tsk, you said if i own a t.v. I need to comply, well I don't want to comply so here is my t.v." ... "Ano ano (english started to crack) this isn't ..." "Not my problem" I said probably a little to curtly.

After about 2 more minutes of finagling he backpedaled to where he finally asked if I use the t.v. to watch japanese broadcasting to which I said I don't even speak enough japanese.

He did something in his little satchel and said "thank you have a nice day" and I haven't heard from NHK since. I was really hoping he would take the t.v. and save me the time trying to recycle it. (Found out later the electronic store recycles them for you when you buy a new t.v.)

[matsuki]

That's awesome! My current place the landlord has apparently paid off the NHK man (NHK stickers everywhere) and paid for free cable (too bad the only connection is in the bedroom...watching TV there is the last thing I want to do) though I have been getting a lot of "visitors" recently when I have English language TV shows going...I never answer and they never leave anything in the post box. I really want to buy a replica/airsoft shotgun or rifle though...

[J.A.F.O]

Dude! that would be more awesome if I had your kinda "visitors" in my bedroom to *ahem* watch English programming.

[Russell]

Court ruling orders anyone with a TV-equipped device to pay NHK’s public broadcasting license fee

The Sagamihara District Court in Yokohama ruled on May 27 that regardless of whether or not someone has entered into a contract with NHK, being in possession of a TV-equipped device, like a smartphone or car navigation equipment, is enough by law to be obligated to pay NHK’s licensing fees.

According to NHK News, the same district court ordered a household in Kanagawa Prefecture to pay a TV license fee that was calculated back to when they first bought their TV set many years ago. The total fee came in at a whopping 109,000 yen. Such a ruling is a first of its kind; up until now if you could somehow avoid signing the TV license contract, you could rid yourself of any obligations to pay.

Without doubt, this latest ruling will leave many non-NHK subscribers with a TV asking themselves, “Should I ditch the box or front the fee?”

Over the past few weeks, Twitter users have had quite a bit to say about it all:

—“Absolutely outrageous. I can see myself being made to enter into a TV license contract just for buying a new phone or car navigation kit.”

—“You’re telling me that NHK really has that much of a viewership? Doesn’t make a difference to me if it’s there or not. What about just not watching it?”

—“What concerns me about this latest ruling is how NHK found out the defendant’s name. I wonder if NHK started the lawsuit without them even knowing? Maybe the concerned party cancelled their TV license contract a while back which is why they got tracked?”

—“We’ve lost the free rights war to NHK!”

—“This hits hard. What about deducting the fee from our taxes? Wait a minute, I’m against that as well. Damn it!”

—“These are really tough sales tactics on NHK’s part. Who wants to pay money to a station that doesn’t keep their content neutral!”

—“This is down right immoral.”

—“I feel sorry for anyone who signed up for a TV equipped smartphone.”

—“It’s terrifying me, ahh!”

As you can clearly see from the comments above, the majority of Twitter users are very critical and a little disgruntled by the latest ruling. What’s more, looking at the Q&A section on the NHK site, it clearly states that any equipment capable of receiving a TV signal such as a PC or car navigation system also becomes a target. This means that anyone in Japan might end up having to sign a NHK TV license contract just for owning a portable game console like the Nintendo DS.

It’s difficult to look at any of this in a positive way, but according to NHK, a contract is counted per household so it is possible to theoretically be the owner of many TV viewing devices while only paying the one contract fee. However, for anyone living in Japan who is determined not to pay the fees, the only advice we can give is make sure you don’t unknowingly buy a smartphone with built-in TV capabilities.

[TennoChinko]

Interesting.

However, it's just a ruling of the Sagamihara Branch of the Yokohama District Court... unlike the US, there is not the same sort of precedent-setting system.

It also will make me more careful about not having my name on the nameplate my lobby, post box etc. And, letters addressed to "gaijin-san" especially don't cut it.

[gaijinpunch]

2 things that usually will get a "moushiwakenai" out of your NHK guy.

1) This is a business, not a residence
2) How much money did you guys embezzle?
3) Fuck off

#2 might be hard to pull off these days, but still... shit like that you don't forget.
Unless someone can prove me wrong, I do not think there is any actual repercussion for not paying the fee. Basically you're guilty of a crime that has no punishment.

Also, I wonder how hard it is to gut he antennae out of your TV which would, I believe, make the contract non-binding. Mine is only used for games and shit off the intarwebz.

[wagyl]

And two responses: a business is not exempt from the license fee while a residence must pay it: both are liable. Unless the collection staff are separate for the two, I don't know how strategy 1 has any positive effect.

And the second response: up until now, there has been no penalty for not paying the fee. NHK only ever successfully pursued remedies against those who had entered into a contract with them and then failed to pay: their success was due to failure to fulfill your contract obligations to pay NHK, not due to avoiding obligations to pay by not entering into a contract with NHK. I have not looked any deeper than reading Russell's post, but on face value that seems to be what has changed. If so, I suspect there might be a legal challenge to this. Or maybe the system will change to fund the NHK in other ways. I can dream, can't I?

[Samurai_Jerk]

One thing I've always wondered is what your obligation is if no one has ever come to your door to sign you up.

[wagyl]

One thing I've always wondered is what your obligation is if no one has ever come to your door to sign you up.

Mimicking the Health Insurance thread, your obligation is to pay, strictly speaking, whether or not NHK pay you a visit. That obligation has always been there, both moral* and legal, but without penalty for non-compliance, outside of contract law.

Up until now, the focus has been more on what happens if you have not contracted with NHK, which of course you are very unlikely to have ever done if they hadn't paid you a visit.

Following the link trail back from Russell's post, through three sites and two languages, leads to http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/2013062 ... 11000.html which suggests that you are deemed to have entered into a contract with NHK irrespective of whether you have actually done anything which would have indicated that you entered into a contract, like sign or stamp with your hanko. However, all net discussion seems to return to this one report by NHK. I would be interested to see other sources.

* Of course, NHK have a moral, if not a legal, obligation to use license fees to fulfill their charter as a public broadcaster. Arguably, there are no penalties for non-compliance there either.

[wangta]

NHK is essentially about stupidity - stupidity of means of collecting the fee in the first place, stupidity in wasting countless citizens' and residents' hard earned money on paying ruthless little bastards to try and force their way into your genkan and hit you up like mobsters' underlings for a 'service' that is sub standard by reasonable definitions of quality.

From my previous experience of NHK, if you didn't enter into a contract as in sign that piece of paper they shoved under your nose, it was difficult for them to do anything legal against you. They could haunt your place and send you letter after letter but so long as you didn't agree to pay the fee by signing something NHK could do diddly squat about it. That seems the case still. They are coming after more people by letter but ignoring it and refusing to sign anything is not going to land you in court.

I was conned into signing not long after I had arrived in Japan and taken over a place from my old gaijin boss. He did the bullshit about how I should pay because he did and it was semi inaka and so the neighbours would pressure me to pay if the NHK collector complained about the gaijin living on their block and not paying. The last bit was probably true and the NHK collector was actually a really nice man so I paid but I honestly watched NHK about 5 times in my three years in that place. And of course my gaijin boss just wrote off his NHK fee like everything else on to his school's expenses. A mercenary bastard who had the standard of do what I say but I don't do it.

I don't have a tv and you'd have to be an A grade moron to pay NHK because you have a computer and a phone capable of receiving their shit. Even their propaganda, I mean publicity, looks sub-standard and amateurish. A photo of two wankers, one is tall, the other is short - I suppose they're meant to be comedians. Another bloke dressed up in glasses as some 'time scoop' rep, and a third bloke (not a female in sight as a tv personality tho they have cooking programs of course as that's a woman's place, in the kitchen, and they show a woman cooking from some program). All accompanied by dreadful characters that are infantile and poorly drawn especially the so called 'mascot'.

If I didn't know NHK better, I'd think the pieces of paper they send me are a running gag on their part.

[gaijinpunch]

And two responses: a business is not exempt from the license fee while a residence must pay it: both are liable. Unless the collection staff are separate for the two, I don't know how strategy 1 has any positive effect.

I don't claim to know that, but I know at two offices I had in two separate locations simply said, "Sorry, this is an office". I'm sure they took that as "we have no TV" and let it be.

NHK only ever successfully pursued remedies against those who had entered into a contract with them and then failed to pay: their success was due to failure to fulfill your contract obligations to pay NHK, not due to avoiding obligations to pay by not entering into a contract with NHK.

What about my other statement about just saying "fuck off" again, after they win in court. Has anyone ever been found to owe someone money in a civil court, and then been arrested (or anything) happen if they didn't live up to their "court-mandated" penalty?

Even their propaganda, I mean publicity, looks sub-standard and amateurish.

I only ever felt guilty about not paying the fee when I had a kid, who was for a short time glued to Okaa-san to Issho and a couple of other kids' shows. My estranged wife has always ducked the NHK guy, and technically I wasn't responsible for such shit at home, so there ya go.