The Party to Protect the People from NHK


The Party that Teaches How to Not Pay the NHK License Fee (Japanese: NHK受信料を支払わない方法を教える党, NHK jushinryō wo shiharawanai hōhō wo oshieru tō), commonly referred to as the NHK Party (NHK党), is a populist[1] and single issue political party in Japan founded on 17 June 2013 by activist Takashi Tachibana. The party is opposed to the NHK license fee, and its manifesto consists of only one policy, revising the 1950 Broadcasting Law to implement scramble broadcasting, which would mean that only those who watch NHK pay for it. The party's slogan is "NHK wo bukkowasu!" (Japanese: NHKをぶっ壊す！, "Destroy NHK!").[2]

The Party that Teaches How to Not Pay the NHK License Fee

NHK受信料を支払わない方法を教える党
LeaderTakashi Tachibana
Deputy LeaderHodaka Maruyama
Masanobu Ōhashi
Secretary-GeneralTakashi Uesugi
Councilors LeaderSatoshi Hamada
Representatives LeaderHodaka Maruyama
Founded17 June 2013 (17 June 2013)
Headquarters〒124-0023 Park Tower Tokyo East Room 407, 1-4-3 Higashishinkoiwa, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo
IdeologyPopulism
Anti-mass media bias
Anti-NHK
Colors  Sky blue   Yellow
Slogan"Destroy NHK!"
Councillors
1 / 245
Representatives
1 / 465
City, special ward, town and village assembly members
28 / 29,839
Website
nhkkara.jp

Name

The party was formed as the NHK License Fee Non-Payment Party (Japanese: NHK受信料不払い党, NHK jushinryō fubarai tō) on 17 June 2013, but changed its name a month later on 23 July 2013 to The Party to Protect the People from NHK (Japanese: NHKから国民を守る党, NHK kara kokumin wo mamoru tō), commonly shortened to N-Koku Party (N国党) or just N-Koku. Its name was again changed in January 2021 to The Party to Protect the People from NHK (Japanese: NHKから自国民を守る党, NHK kara jikokumin wo mamoru tō), officially abbreviated to NHK Party (NHK党). This change, the addition of the character 自 (ji) before 国民 (kokumin) did not alter the meaning of the party's name, but was intended to allow the party use the official abbreviation Jimintō (自民党), that of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.[3] This was rejected by the Internal Affairs Ministry, however, and so the abbreviation was instead changed to "NHK Party".[4] The party's official website used the English name "The Party to Protect Citizens from NHK",[5] but the English-speaking press has preferred the translation "The Party to Protect the People from NHK". The party again changed its name to The Party that Teaches How to Not Pay the NHK License Fee (Japanese: NHK受信料を支払わない方法を教える党) on 5 February 2021, and announced that it intended to keep changing its name in future, while maintaining the "NHK Party" short form as the party's common name.[6][7]

History

The founder of the party, Takashi Tachibana, is a former employee of Japan's national broadcasting organization NHK. He resigned from his position in the accounting department at NHK after having leaked internal corruption to weekly magazine Shūkan Bunshun in 2005. In 2012, he founded the "Tachibana one-man broadcasting station", a YouTube channel that vowed to fight against NHK.[8] In 2013, this evolved into The Party to Protect the People from NHK. Tachibana used YouTube to bypass the mass media, which would not cover his activism. Over the years, he used YouTube to gain multiple local council seats, and finally, in 2019, the party won its first seat in the Diet in the summer 2019 House of Councillors election.[8] The party also gained a seat in the House of Representatives when Hodaka Maruyama joined the party on 29 July 2019.[8]

The party mainly exists to counter bad behaviour by NHK license fee money collectors,[9][10] who Tachibana says have connections to Yakuza.[8] The party issues a special sticker to protect citizen's properties from these collectors, and has a call center to help people avoid paying the license fee.[8] Strangely, while it is required by law to make a contract with NHK if you own a device capable of receiving the NHK signal, the law does not require payment of the license fee.[8] This causes problems, and Tachibana wants to eliminate the license fee system and make NHK like any other subscription television channel, where only those that want to watch it must pay.

The rise of the party is part of rising distrust of the mass media in Japan.[8]

References
  1. Shiromoto, Koji (10 Aug 2019). "7 winners and losers from a deeply ambiguous Japanese election". McGill International Review. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  2. "After stunning election win, anti-NHK party sets higher goal：The Asahi Shimbun". The Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  3. "Ｎ国が申請した略称「自民党」認めず 中央選管「混乱もたらす」". Sankei News (in Japanese). 2020-12-22. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  4. "第3回中央選挙管理会において決定された事項". Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. 2020-12-22. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  5. "NHKをぶっ壊す！". NHKから自国民を守る党 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-12-28.
  6. "N国が党名変更　略称「NHK党」に". Nikkei Shimbun (in Japanese). 5 February 2021.
  7. "〝Ｎ国党〟が〝ＮＨＫ党〟へ 「ＮＨＫ受信料を支払わない方法を教える党」に改称". Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). 29 January 2021.
  8. Guerrera-Sapone, Max (15 January 2021). "YouTube and Japan's New Political Underground: The Rise and Decline of The Party to Protect the People From NHK". The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.
  9. ""NHK Fee Collector Leaves Note Threatening Impending "Crackdown"". GaijinPot Blog. 26 February 2019.
  10. "NHK fee collector leaves threatening notes on people's doorsteps". Japan Today. Retrieved 2019-07-30.


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