Scandalous, corrupt, greedy, secretive monopoly

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

From the good folks at Japundit comes "Shut Up & Pay!"

In part, the article states:

it costs NHK 76.9 billion yen per year, more than 12 percent of its total annual operating income, on fee collection!?!

NHS says 17.1 billion of this is for the salaries of the 1,259 in-house employees (out of a total workforce of 11,642) who are involved in fee collection, and another 10 million yen is for “depreciation.” 59.7 billion yen is paid to 5,700 external subcontractors who perform fee collection for NHK. The average income for an NHK fee collector is around 5 million yen, which is more than a four-year college graduate normally earns in a company over here.

Read on...

Edited August 2, 2006 by Otokonoyama

[Ratpack 0]

From the good folks at Japundit comes "Shut Up & Pay!"

In part, the article states:

it costs NHK 76.9 billion yen per year, more than 12 percent of its total annual operating income, on fee collection!?!

NHS says 17.1 billion of this is for the salaries of the 1,259 in-house employees (out of a total workforce of 11,642) who are involved in fee collection, and another 10 million yen is for

[Jonosuke 28]

Since I am a fundamentalist as far as public broadcasters are concerned, I really don't get the point of all this anger. When you look at what commercial broadcasters are providing especially in Japan, you really appreciate the value of having NHK. Name me one commercial broadcaster even providing us a basho's digest. For those of us who are into sumo, we should be the first one to be lining up and paying for the subscription. Because withtout them, you will get nada.

If you are totally against the concept of public broadcasters, fine, don't watch them and you can still have a clear conscience in not giving the money to these guys. But if you are complaining about the cost of collecting, what do you plan to suggest. Do you want to have the government collect the money as a part of your income tax or sales tax? This means you will be paying for the service regardless of whether you watch them or not, so you should be more upset.

For those who watch NHK and still not paying, just remember you are able to watch NHK because other people are paying for your share. Also it may not be clear to you but you may be paying for NHK as well if you are staying in a hotel or inn with a TV set as they are required to pay for them.

More than any public organization like NSK, NHK goes through far more critical review of their annnual budget. They will have to come up with their mission statement, short and long term goals every year at the parliament before their budget is approved. The reason for this is the government is giving them the right to collect a subscription money from all Japanese households.

I don't want to get into flamethrowing but the argument about not living there forever so you won't pay for a service is rather immature. Often you pay for such things as insurance like Unemployment Insurance regardless of whether you may benefit from it in future or not. And personally if you don't udnerstand something in a place you live, I will try to learn and understand. Just learn from foreign rikishis and how they became successful. I am certain that you will gain far more in the quality of life than simply financial returns.

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

Name me one commercial broadcaster even providing us a basho's digest.

Sports-I (ESPN)

But if you are complaining about the cost of collecting, what do you plan to suggest. Do you want to have the government collect the money as a part of your income tax or sales tax? This means you will be paying for the service regardless of whether you watch them or not, so you should be more upset.

How about mailing the bill to each household like most companies do here for gas, water, electricity, telephone...

For those who watch NHK and still not paying, just remember you are able to watch NHK because other people are paying for your share. Also it may not be clear to you but you may be paying for NHK as well if you are staying in a hotel or inn with a TV set as they are required to pay for them.

There was a scandal a scant year ago when it was revealed NHK waived the fee for many companies renting tvs to hospitals...some paid, some didn't. Again, NHK refused any disclosure, making their suspect actions even more suspicious...

More than any public organization like NSK, NHK goes through far more critical review of their annnual budget. They will have to come up with their mission statement, short and long term goals every year at the parliament before their budget is approved. The reason for this is the government is giving them the right to collect a subscription money from all Japanese households.

A "public" corporation refusing to disclose to whom it pays for collection services, how these secret friends are selected...is that really transparent operation?

Edited August 3, 2006 by Otokonoyama

[Jonosuke 28]

>Sports-I (ESPN)

You PAY for this service - when I talk about commercial broadcasters, I was talking about mainstream general broadcasters supported by advertizers. You will pay for what you watch, there is nothing wrong with that so why complain about NHK?

>How about mailing the bill

I probably think one day it will come to that. We used to have a delivery kid coming to our house to collect a weekly or monthly charge for a newspaper but they don't do that anymore. They just take their due from our credit card.

In case of NHK, the problem is that people move, new houses get built and the letters may go to places that have no TV. Someone still need to check for that as their collectors have no right to collect if you don't have a TV.

>Disclosure

Regardless or public or private or government or religious organization, disclosure is a two way street, they still need to respect the privacy of their business partners. NHK pays a scale to many guests appearing in their programs but some do get far more than the scale but they don't disclose who gets what or their production budget. Just because it is a public organization, there is no requirement to dislose all their operations to the public. This is not unique to NHK nor Japan.

>Secret friends

That is in the eye of beholder. There are always certain business partners any organization feels comfortable with. You can read a conspiracy theory on almost everything.

[Sasanishiki 57]

For those of us who are into sumo, we should be the first one to be lining up and paying for the subscription. Because withtout them, you will get nada.

...

For those who watch NHK and still not paying, just remember you are able to watch NHK because other people are paying for your share. Also it may not be clear to you but you may be paying for NHK as well if you are staying in a hotel or inn with a TV set as they are required to pay for them.

Hear, hear for the first point!!

On the second, this is not quite true. Yes, paying the subscription helps NHK revenue but, as it is a state broadcaster, the state pays for NHK's running. they do this through taxes. Therefore, everyone pays for NHK through the work they do (assuming it gets taxed) and the goods they buy, which have a sales tax included. Those that pay the NHK subscription are helping NHK out more than others.

For the record, I paid for NHK when approached by a collector. This happened for about 12 months of the 21 months I lived in Japan for the longest time. I started in a dormitory for 4 months and either didn't have a TV or was not approached before I moved out. Thereafter I had the NHK collector come once when I lived in my apartment. by the time they came to collect again, I'd left Japan. I couldn't very well say I had no TV as there was a small satellite antenna on my balcony!! The other times I've lived in Japan I was either without a TV or living somewhere that paid for the subscription andjust rented me the room.

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

On the second, this is not quite true. Yes, paying the subscription helps NHK revenue but, as it is a state broadcaster, the state pays for NHK's running. they do this through taxes. Therefore, everyone pays for NHK through the work they do (assuming it gets taxed) and the goods they buy, which have a sales tax included. Those that pay the NHK subscription are helping NHK out more than others.

Precisely the point Jonosuke and other defenders of NHK like to ignore. The fee they collect via their shady association with "unnamed collection agencies" - sounds kinda like those high-interest, no collateral loan operators - is just cream, hence it's misuse by the executives of NHK. Nor have the friends of NHK been able to explain why funds from programs developed and aired by NHK are licensed to a subsidiary of NHK (full of "retired NHK executives"), and sold on video and DVD are not rolled back into new program development and NHK budget use. These monies are forever gone to the public, even though the programs (and development of these programs) were funded by Japanese tax yen and "voluntary" payment of NHK extracurricular fees. (Clapping wildly...)

A snippet from what a frustrated Japanese poster wrote on another message board:

You have no idea how sooty this organization is.

Do you know what happens to the programs after they are aired, the rights are transferred to a subsidiaries like NHK Enterprise and are sold to other broadcast companies and burned on DVDs to be sold at local stores.

The problem is the profit gained through these transactions goes to NHK Enterprise and not NHK.

Further more any re-runs aired is paid to NHK Enterprise since the rights are now transferred to NHK Enterprise.

It's one of those loopholes that bureaucrats love to create for personal profit.

Edited August 4, 2006 by Otokonoyama

[Zuikakuyama 1]

Regardless of how sorry or how corrupt the NHK is (and those points are debatable), the simple truth is that the NHK depends on the collections of fees for a substantial portion of their operations. And it is the only organization out there that is providing minute-by-minute coverage of sumo.

The other issues are just red herrings. For those issues that needs to be solved, talk to your diet members to get them solved.

For me it is rather simple, if you enjoy the program, then pay what is asked.

Otherwise, if you are so holy and mighty, and refuse to pay based on your principles, then please do not watch a single minute of NHK program.

Edited August 4, 2006 by Zuikakuyama

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

Regardless of how sorry or how corrupt the NHK is (and those points are debatable)...For those issues that needs to be solved, talk to your diet members to get them solved.

(Clapping wildly...)

For me it is rather simple, if you enjoy the program, then pay what is asked.

Otherwise, if you are so holy and mighty, and refuse to pay based on your principles, then please do not watch a single minute of NHK program.

I don't think any of the posters on this thread made any claims of holiness and/or mightiness. We are enjoying a debate over the merits and flaws of the system, and even tossing out the odd idea for improvement. (Sigh...)

[Kotoku 0]

In Britain, they will throw yer ass in jail if you don't pay up for the BBC... NHK is boring, stupid and venal. The news is pathetic, it is either manipulated or worthless. Don't get me started.

But we like the local NHK guy. He'ds been collecting from my Japanese family for 40 years. He's older than dirt, and a nice old fart...

[ilovesumo 12]

Because withtout them, you will get nada.

hai... :-O

[Fujisan 532]

In Britain, they will throw yer ass in jail if you don't pay up for the BBC... NHK is boring, stupid and venal. The news is pathetic, it is either manipulated or worthless. Don't get me started.

The licence people have been chasing me for years to pay up but they haven't got a chance in hell of getting it. :-O :-O (Shaking head...)

Mind you I should say I dont have a tv,not at my flat where they keep sending me letters anyway and why should I have to inform them of that fact? (Shaking head...)

I might aswell phone the car tax office while I'm at it and tell them I dont have a car. ;-)

(Of course I dont have a phone in my flat either so I better tell the phone company before they bill me)

Edited August 30, 2006 by Fujisan

[Shibouyama 1]

I'm sorry, I thought commercials paid for TV channels to operate. That's how all regular channels work, isn't it? The NHK has commercials like every other channel don't they?

And for they record, I've never paid the NHK people and never will. Call me a bad person if you like. Sumo is the only Japanese TV I watch and the concept of a voluntary bill seems pretty ridiculous to me.

[Zentoryu 154]

I'm sorry, I thought commercials paid for TV channels to operate. That's how all regular channels work, isn't it?

Regular TV channels yes, but not Public TV channels. Public TV (at least here in the USA) relies on public and government funding. Which is why stations like the Public Broadcasting System are always holding fund raisers, because they can't survive without the money generated by those fund raisers.

Obviously they do things differently in Japan, but I believe NHK still falls under the Public TV catagory and therefore requires public and state funding in order to survive as they don't receive the commercial revenue that regular stations do.

[Hidariashiyama 0]

NHK should start holding auctions like the PBS stations do in the US. People donate items or services or discounts for goods and they are given a "value". Then the auction starts online and finishes on live tv. The bidding always starts at a third of the actual value. I won a 3-credit college course for half the price as well as some very nice gift certificates to restaurants for a nice discount as well. The money raised is HUGE!

Perhaps, NHK could hold an auction and for all of those that donate an item and win an item, they do not need to collect a fee from them. This would generate interest in local and community businesses as well as make a large sum of yen for NHK. People want to see value for their money. It sounds like whether you watch NHK or not, they will come collecting.